The Bombay High Court on Friday will hear a petition filed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena seeking permission to hold its annual Dussehra rally at the iconic Shivaji Park in central Mumbai on October 5. The petition, seeking urgent hearing, was mentioned before a division bench of Justices R D Dhanuka and Kamal Khata on Wednesday.The court will also hear an intervention application filed by Sada Sarvankar, MLA of the Dadar constituency from CM Eknath Shinde's camp opposing the petition and citing the dispute about who is the real Shiv Sena.
The Mumbai civic body’s yesterday denied permission to both the factions to hold Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park fearing communal disharmony. Former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar, the spokesperson of the Thackeray-led Sena, accused the BJP of trying to corner her party with the denial of permission for the rally on October 5 calling it a bad script for the saffron party. The petition sought directions to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to forthwith grant permission for the Sena's Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park. The Sena in its plea also said the party was holding the Dussehra rally every year at the Shivaji Park since 1966 and the civic body had always permitted it. The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government, which comprised the Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, collapsed in June this year after a revolt led by Eknath Shinde against the Sena leadership. Shinde was later sworn in as the chief minister with BJP's Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.