Shiv Sena's senior leader Arvind Sawant said that Balasaheb Thackeray’s family may no longer have the Shiv Sena party name and symbol but has strong support among the people who will teach a lesson to the BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde in elections.
They (opponents) cannot take Balasaheb Thackeray out of people’s hearts, he said and claimed that the Maharashtra government was not holding municipal elections due to fear of defeat.
There is a people’s court bigger than the courts, Sawant said, adding the party’s roots were strong in Maharashtra. The remarks by Sawant, a Lok Sabha member and former Union Minister, came days after the Election Commission recognised the outfit led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the ‘bow and arrow’ symbol to it.
Sawant described Shinde, who split the Shiv Sena in June last year, as a traitor and alleged that he was part of the BJP’s game to destroy the party founded by Balasaheb Thackeray.
They took away the election symbol and snatched the name, but the love for the Thackeray family in the hearts of the people can never be taken away, he said. He claimed that there was a lot of anger among the people against the BJP and Shinde and they were waiting for the elections to teach them a lesson.
Sawant, the national spokesperson of the Shiv Sena (Udhhav Balasaheb Thackeray), said it was necessary to defeat the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to protect democracy and urged all the opposition parties to come together to achieve the goal.
Asked whether Thackeray had failed to sense such a big revolt in the party, Sawant said the party supremo understood everything but never felt that Shinde could stoop to the level of breaking the party.