Dussehra rallies to take centre stage in poll-bound Maharashtra tomorrow

In Mumbai, a Sena vs Sena battle again

On Saturday, the Shiv Sena and the Shiv Sena (UBT) will look to reassert their political might in Mumbai. Unlike the 2022 and 2023 Dussehra showdowns that began on an acrimonious note with both parties fighting for the same historic Shivaji Park venue and moving the high court, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has decided to avoid conflict by holding this year’s rally at Azad Maidan in South Mumbai.

Leaders of both parties are unlikely to mince words during their public addresses. In fact, speaking to party workers this week, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said, “I will speak my mind on issues confronting Maharashtra and people at our annual Dussehra rally. The goldsmith strikes 100 times but the blacksmith strikes only once.”

Die-hard party workers loyal to the Thackerays are anxiously awaiting his message, wondering if he will be named the MVA’s CM face, a question that weighs on the cadre following differences within the coalition.

“Let MVA declare its CM face. We are ready to support anybody,” Thackeray had said recently. Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut echoed the sentiment. “You cannot go to the public with a body, minus the head or the face,” he said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT)’s insistence on projecting the chief ministerial candidate, however, has not gone down well with its alliance partners. “It is a closed chapter for us. It will be decided post polls,” state Congress chief Nana Patole said. Meanwhile, NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar maintained, “The party with more seats will be entitled to the chief ministership. It is a post-poll exercise. We should go to polls through collective leadership.”

For Shinde, the Dussehra rally holds special significance as it will be his first major leadership test since the split in the saffron party in June 2022 led to two separate factions. Though Shinde is leading the Mahayuti as chief minister, neither the BJP nor the NCP have accepted his leadership. Within the Mahayuti itself, there are three strong contenders for the CM post: Shinde, Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar – and their respective parties are vocal about this at public forums.

Shinde’s bigger challenge is to check the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s growth in the Assembly elections. In the Lok Sabha polls, Shinde proved his mettle to some extent by getting seven MPs out of the 15 seats contested.

In Marathwada, rallies to woo Marathas, OBCs

For the first time, Maratha activist Manoj Jarange Patil has announced a Dussehra rally at Narayangad in Beed district. “It is high time we show our strength and unity. The rally is to get Marathas together and stronger,” Jarange Patil said.

From August last year to September this year, Jarange Patil has held six hunger protests to demand Maratha reservation under the Other Backward Class (OBC) category. His last hunger strike in September was at Antarwali Sarathi village in Jalna.

The Narayangad rally is significant in light of Jarange Patil’s appeal to Marathas to teach the BJP a lesson in the upcoming Assembly polls. With Marathas accounting for 33 per cent of the state’s population, they constitute a sizeable vote bank that no party can afford to ignore.

The Marathwada region will also see a rally by BJP national secretary and MLC Pankaja Munde at Bhagwangad in Beed district. Pankaja inherited the Dussehra rally tradition at Bhagwangad, a sacred pilgrimage centre for the Vanjari (OBC) community, from her father, prominent BJP leader, the late Gopinath Munde.

Gopinath Munde held his first Dussehra rally in 1993. “He started the rally to consolidate the OBC base for the BJP,” a senior party functionary said. After his demise, Pankaja, the eldest of his three daughters, has kept the tradition alive. Pankaja’s last few Dussehra rallies have been seen as a bid to reassert her identity within the party.

At Nagpur, an annual RSS tradition

The oldest Dussehra rally is the one held by the RSS at Nagpur, a practice that has been followed since it was founded in 1925. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is expected to address volunteers at Reshimbaug ground in Nagpur. With the RSS playing a proactive role in the Maharashtra Assembly polls, Bhagwat’s message will be closely watched.

“The RSS’s Dussehra melava (gathering) is different from political parties’ rallies. Here, the RSS chief reflects on larger social, economic, foreign or political issues confronting India and the world,” an RSS worker said.