Rumblings of discontent in Nagpur Shiv Sena unit too

NAGPUR: The local Shiv Sena unit too seems be feeling the rumblings of the political earthquake in state, with a Nagpur unit office bearer speaking out against sampark pramukh MLC Dushyant Chaturve.
“When our senior leaders landed here in Nagpur, they would be taken away for lunch and dinner at their homes,” said Kumeriya. “The MLC seat had been given to Chaturvedi, which is fine, but then afterwards all old loyalists were ignored,” he added.
Kumeriya stressed on the point that though the anger among rebel MLAs is ‘understandable’, but their method is unacceptable. “No matter what happens, rebelling against the party is not done. You stay here with Uddhav ji and fight for your rights like true Shiv Sainiks,” said Kumeriya.
TOI had on Saturday reported about the old versus new guard struggle, but that time nobody wished to speak on record. But now veteran Sena leader Kumeriya has come out in the open to talk about what exactly is ailing the party.
Kumeriya says the rebellion news was brewing for quite some time. “I have been with Sena now for over two decades and well connected to the grassroots workers in other districts too. Everybody had the same complaint that people who joined the party recently, seem to have moved up the hierarchy very fast. They have become the eyes and ears of our senior leaders and that’s not good for the long term,” said Kumeriya.
In TOI’s Saturday report, some people from the ‘new guard’ had questioned what the old loyalists did for almost three decades considering that there are negligible electoral gains to show. They pointed out that this very failure to expand Sena’s political footprint in Nagpur district, is the reason that party high command wants the new guard to take the lead.
Kumeriya challenged the argument saying there are two reasons for failure to expand politically. “Here it is our long term alliance with BJP which led to Sena playing second fiddle. In the seat distribution dynamics, BJP got the bigger share. Second reason is that outsiders who joined the party have ignored the grassroots workers thus damaging it from inside,” said Kumeriya.
MLC Chaturvedi, who is currently in Mumbai for official reasons, said, “In every family there are disagreements. Shiv Sena is a family and it’s not uncommon for differences of opinion cropping up. Regardless, I have always believed that there is nothing which cannot be resolved by sitting across the table and discussing in detail.”
Shiv Sena’s senior leader and MP Anil Desai had told TOI in a previous interview that the 18-35 voter age group is what the party is looking out for. Hence in that context, the party was encouraging youth to step up in leadership roles in tandem with the old guard.