Ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly election, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray will set out on a month-long tour of the State from June 24 to energise the party’s organisational network.
Ahead of the tour, the party has decided to revive the organisational set-up by harking back to the Sena’s old party slogan of “One village, one shakha [party branch]”.
“This was late Balasaheb’s [Bal Thackeray’s] slogan. We are going to take this to the people once again, with more energy and enthusiasm,” said Anil Desai, Rajya Sabha member and party secretary.
Mr. Thackeray’s will meet party activists at the grassroots level during the tour.
The saffron alliance of the Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 42 of the 48 seats in the State in the Lok Sabha election. In vote share, they are ahead in 220 of the 288 Assembly segments.
“We do not want to waste this opportunity. The people are disillusioned with the Congress-NCP [Nationalist Congress Party] government in the State. But we cannot be laidback in our approach. We have to work hard and Uddhav ji is doing just that,” Mr. Desai said.
The party’s election strategy will be discussed in a workshop on Wednesday and Thursday on the eve of its 48th foundation day.
Commenting on the dispute between the BJP and the Sena over seat-sharing for the election, Mr. Desai said they could exchange some seats. “But the seat-sharing formula will not change. It will remain as it was in the previous election,” he said.
Under the formula, the Sena contests 171 seats and the BJP 117. Reports say that following the Lok Sabha election victory, the BJP demanded more. The Sena leadership has, however, insisted on sticking to the formula.
