Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said he was confident the people of Thane will remain with his party chief Uddhav Thackeray.
The Shiv Sena split in June last year following the rebellion by Thane strongman Eknath Shinde, who went on to become chief minister with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Thane was considered among the safest seats of the undivided Shiv Sena due to the massive popularity of late Anand Dighe, the mentor of Shinde.
However, since the split, several Sena units in the area aligned with Shinde, though the Sena (UBT) continues to have sizable presence in the region. Addressing a Shiv Jayanti rally here, Raut said no force can break the relation the people of Thane have with his party.
The people of Thane are, in fact, waiting to teach a lesson to those who betrayed the party, Raut asserted at the well-attended event in the presence of local Lok Sabha MP Rajan Vichare. Pointing towards the huge crowd, Raut said these were people who loved the party and were not those hired for khokhas.
Balasaheb Thackeray used to say that of the 250 wars Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj fought, some 200 were against his own men. This is the situation today in Thane. Due to Balasaheb, Thane will always be with the Shiv Sena, Raut claimed.