The historic Shivaji Park was on Thursday evening all decked up and awash in a riot of colours - saffron flags of Shiv Sena and the tricolour of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress. Presiding over this colourful ensemble was Chief Minister-designate Uddhav Thackeray.
Mumbai: Since Thursday afternoon, crowds started to throng the Shivaji Park premises. Lakhs of Shiv Sena, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress followers were at the Dadar ground to witness the historic swearing-in ceremony of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.
As the day passed, more and more people showed up and as the day broke, nothing was visible except a sea of people waving flags of the three parties.
82-year-old dairy farm owner, Eknath Desai had booked his Tatkal ticket the earlier night after Uddhav Thackeray was announced as the next Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Eknath's father was an ardent follower of Bal Thackeray's ideology and hoped that there would be a Sena Chief Minister (CM) in the state someday.
Eknath's father didn’t live long enough but Eknath travelled all the way from Kolhapur to witness his father's dream being fulfilled. "My father was a staunch believer of Sena ideology. He believed that only Shiv Sena can uplift Maharashtra," said Eknath.
Echoing Eknath's sentiment, Raju Chavan, an onion farmer from Nashik said that both Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sena are parties of the soil and it's a matter of pride for them that these two parties together didn't bow down in front of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
"I am an NCP Karyakarta but I have immense respect for the Sena ideology. The party dedicatedly works for the benefit of Marathi manoos and this coalition is a victory for people of Maharashtra," stated Raju. Furthermore, Raju claimed that BJP’s primary objective was to wipe off regional parties but this coalition has put a full stop to their motive.
Sena, since it's inception, has opposed the ideologies of both Congress and NCP. However, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar was known to have shared a rapport with the Thackeray family even though both the families may have locked horns on the political turf.
"Pawar saab and Balasaheb used to be good friends. If they can be, why can't we? I am sure this coalition is going to last for more than 25 years," asserted Ratan Naik, a Pune-based businessman, who claims to be a "Pawar Bhakt".
Earlier Uddhav invited as many as 400 farmers from various regions of Maharashtra. The Sena chief also invited the kin of farmers who had committed suicide in the last five years to pay respect. Nashik's 19-year-old Diwakar Hule’s father had committed suicide after failing to repay his loan due to the Maharashtra drought in 2015.
Diwakar was one of those 2000 farmers who marched to Mumbai in 2017 from Nashik. Diwakar said that this is the first time any political party has felt the need to invite farmers to the oath ceremony. "We farmers contribute a major percentage to the state's economy. This gesture has assured that we are more than just a vote bank," stated Diwakar.
As the oath ceremony progressed, hysterical cheers broke out across the ground. As the giant screen showed former CM Devendra Fadnavis and BJP state chief Chandrakant Patil, a majority of the crowd shouted "Champa", thus mocking Patil.
Commenting on this, Prabhakar Patil from Kalyan, who was accompanied by his brother, said, "BJP used Shiv Sena and they got a taste of their own medicine.
Its the Sena that helped BJP form it's base in Maharashtra, but now they wanted to topple us." Prabhakar furthermore claimed that this coalition had proved that no matter what, Marathas won't bow down to Delhi.
