On the party’s foundation day on Monday, the chieftains of the rival Shiv Sena factions, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and his predecessor Uddhav Thackeray, claimed the ingenuity of ideology and its execution while heaping allegations on each other. Thackeray vowed to exterminate the ‘slaves of the BJP’. Shinde said he has chosen to respond to allegations with work and continuation of the saffron alliance.

Addressing his supporters at a Matunga auditorium, Thackeray said on the one hand, he had a massive gardi (congregation) of sainiks, and on the other side, the garadi (hired extortionists) had come together. “In the time of the Peshwas, the garadis were hired for confusing the enemy soldiers and for extortion,” he said referring to the Shinde Sena. “Some perverts enjoy inflicting trauma on others. When I said the PM should go to Manipur, they said it was like spitting on the sun. Why does this sun not rise in Manipur which a retired general has described as Syria and Libya? The dictator in one of these countries hid in a gutter and was killed by people in the streets. In Manipur, the BJP leaders and supporters are being killed. We don’t want that to happen because it is our Hindutva,” he said. “When Congress was in power it was said that Islam was in danger. When the BJP is in power, it is said that Hinduism is in danger. What does this mean? Hindus are being killed in Manipur and Kashmir. You don’t kill the real enemy but are out to finish the political rivals,” he said.