The Sena announced that a nishta handi will be organised by the Yuva Sena which is headed by Aaditya.
“Loyalty Dahi handi! The celebration of loyalty, the joy of Dahihandi!” the Sena said in a post announcing the dahi handi on twitter.
In a bid to take on Aaditya, the BJP had announced that it will organise dahi handi this Friday in Worli’s iconic Jamboree Maidan.
Aaditya is an MLA from Worli and the Sena said it would organise its dahi handi in another venue in the neighbourhood.
For many years, then NCP leader Sachin Ahir, who joined the Sena in 2019 used to organise dahi handi in Jamboree Maidan. Later Sena legislator Sunil Shinde began organising dahi handi there, but this year, newly appointed city BJP chief Ashish Shelar got the BJP to book the venue first, forcing the Sena to hunt for a new venue.
While Ahir’s Sankalp Prathistan stopped organising dahi handi after a Supreme Court (SC) order in 2015, Sena’s Shinde organised dahi handi at Jamboree Maidan last in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. Ahir is now a Sena MLC and so is Shinde.
Interestingly, Sena MLA from Mahim, Sada Sarvankar, under whose constituency falls has joined the rebel CM Shinde camp along with several office bearers of the Sena from the Dadar-Mahim belt.
Shelar said that the BJP was going to organise dahi handi in over 327 locations in the city. “We don’t believe in any strongholds. Aaditya Thackeray has himself won because of BJP votes as an alliance candidate. BJP is organising over 300 dahi hands all over Mumbai and we have given insurance cover to over 200 mandals. Jamboree maidan is just a teaser, the whole film is yet to play,” Shelar said.
The Sena on its part said that it was going to organise its dahi handi in another venue since the Jamboree Maidan was recently renovated and it didn’t want to damage the new facilities.
