Advantage Uddhav: Shiv Sena, the significance of Shivaji Park, and the Dussehra rally tradition

In the tussle over Shiv Sena’s legacy, Uddhav Thackeray has suffered many a setback. Amid defections and court rulings, a big win for the former Maharashtra chief minister has come in the form of the Dussehra rally.

The Bombay High Court allowed the Uddhav faction to hold the annual rally at Mumbai’s famous Shivaji Park. The Dadar ground holds great significance for the Shiv Sena, now divided into two factions, one led by Thackeray and the other by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde who has formed the government with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), after leading a rebellion against his own party.

We take a look at why Shivaji Park is significant for the Sena.

एक नेता, एक झेंडा, एक मैदान…
शिवसेनेच्या पारंपरिक ऐतिहासिक दसरा मेळाव्याचे साक्षीदार व्हा!
स्थळ : छत्रपती शिवाजी महाराज पार्क (शिवतीर्थ), दादर
५ ऑक्टोबर २०२२, सायं. ६.३० वा. pic.twitter.com/FbulJpw2mA

— ShivSena – शिवसेना (@ShivSena) September 30, 2022

The history of the park

Established in 1925 by the Bombay Municipal Corporation during colonial rule, the ground in central Mumbai was known as Mahim Park. Two years later, in 1927, it was renamed after the Maratha king Shivaji in his tercentenary year because of the efforts of freedom fighter and councillor Avantikabai Gokhale. A statue of Shivaji was erected here.

Before Independence, it hosted rallies led by freedom fighters. Shivaji Park has been at the centre of many landmark events in the political history of Maharashtra including the Samyukta Maharashtra movement which led to the birth of the state in 1960. Bal Thackeray’s father, social reformer Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, was among the leaders of the movement which demanded carving Maharashtra from the erstwhile Bombay state.

The memorial of freedom fighter and Hindutva ideologue Vinayaka Damodar Savarkar is located near the ground. He lived in a bungalow in the same area.

The birth of the Shiv Sena

The ground played a big role in the shaping of the Shiv Sena, which was founded by Bal Thackeray as the army of Shivaji, on 19 June 1966. Four months later, on 30 October 1966, the fiery patriarch addressed a huge gathering of people from Maharashtra at Shivaji Park, urging them to reclaim their identities.

The first rally, which has become a Dussehra tradition for the party, was not held on the day of the festival. There was a lot of preparation to be done and hence while Dussehra fell on 23 October, Thackeray spoke from the stage at Shivaji Park days later.

Thackeray, who was a political cartoonist and the founder of the magazine Marmik, wrote about the problem plaguing Marathi youth like unemployment. He announced the rally in the magazine, unsure how many people would turn up. Some suggested that the event be held in an auditorium but Thackeray insisted on Shivaji Park.

Senior Marathi journalist Prakash Akolkar writes in his history of the Shiv Sena, even Bal Thackeray himself was not sure about the response because he was then only a cartoonist and magazine editor. But the rally was a huge success and after that Bal Thackeray never looked back, Akolkar adds.

At the first “Dussehra rally”, the patriarch spoke openly about locals getting sidelined, setting the tone for the Marathi manoos “cause”, which would become the mainstay of Sena politics in years to come.

Crowds gathered in huge numbers, drawn to Thackeray who portrayed himself as the “protector” of the Maharashtrians. Unlike today, there was no police protection and a steel tiffin was circulated among the attendees to collect funds for the Shiv Sena, reports The Indian Express.

The party headquarters, Sena Bhawan, is located nearby, and Bal Thackeray lived in the Park’s vicinity for several years.

The making of a tradition

It’s from this venue that Bal Thackeray went on to give many powerful speeches. “This is the place from where Shiv Sena pramukh Balasaheb Thackeray spelled out the party’s agenda, like the issue of Marathi manoos, Hindutva, the party's position on various issues; and also launched searing attacks on his opponents and the state and central governments,” veteran Sena leader and MP Gajanan Kirtikar told news agency PTI.

Today, Sena workers called the ground “Shiva tirtha”, a holy place, a name probably given by the senior Thackeray himself.

Sena’s many milestones

It’s been 56 years since the first rally was held and over the years, Shivaji Park has seen the Sena grow from strength to strength.

As Bal Thackeray became the force to reckon with, the rally drew more and more crowds. His Dussehra speech was the highlight in Maharashtra’s political calendar as it would indicate the party line. Political stalwarts like former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP’s popular leader Pramod Mahajan, the socialist George Fernandes, and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar have shared the stage with the Sena supremo at Shivaji Park.

In 1995, when the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance won state elections for the first time, Sena’s Manohar Joshi took oath as chief minister at Shivaji Park.

In 2010, the Bombay High Court directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to notify Shivaji Park as a silent zone. After the senior Thackeray hit out at the order in an editorial piece in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana, the court allowed the annual gathering.

The Sena supremo addressed his last virtual rally at Shivaji Park in 2012 when he was ill. A recorded message was relayed through large screens on the ground and Thackeray urged party workers to show his son Uddhav and grandson Aaditya the same support.

After Bal Thackeray’s death in November of that year, he was cremated at Shivaji Park with full state honours, making it the first public cremation in Mumbai. The Park has a “Smriti Sthal” dedicated to him, and in 2018 the BMC handed over the Mumbai mayor’s bungalow, opposite the ground on Veer Savarkar Marg, to a trust for housing a larger memorial.

After splitting from the Shiv Sena, Raj Thackeray held the first rally of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on the ground. He remains a resident of the neighbourhood. And in 2019, Uddhav took oath as CM there as he headed the Maha Vikas Aghadi government.

Sena vs Sena

The Eknath Shinde-led faction wanted to hold the annual Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park as it lays claim to the party. However, the court gave a go-ahead to Team Uddhav after the BMC denied permission to both sides citing a law and order issue.

While Uddhav will address the rally from the party’s bastion, Shinde will speak at an event at MMRDA ground in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, close to Matoshree, the residence of the Thackerays.

Both factions have released videos ahead of the rally, claiming to be true heirs of Bal Thackeray.

#दसरा_मेळावा_२०२२ pic.twitter.com/mCQZs6rufq

— Eknath Shinde - एकनाथ शिंदे (@mieknathshinde) September 29, 2022

Sena’s deputy leader and former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said the Dussehra rally is now a party tradition, adding that it could not be held for two years because of the pandemic.

Arvind Sawant, the spokesperson of the Uddhav faction, said that Bal Thackeray continued to hold people in thrall at his Dussehra rallies at Shivaji Park for five decades. "Later, Uddhav ji guided us from there as party chief. So it is naturally our right (to hold the rally there),” he said.

NCP president Sharad Pawar said Shivaji Park is synonymous with the Shiv Sena. “When one says Shivaji Park, it brings to mind the Shiv Sena led by Balasaheb Thackeray. And that Shiv Sena is now Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena. So their demand for the Dussehra rally is not wrong,” Pawar said.

With inputs from agencies

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