The bitterness between the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and the BJP appears to be growing by the day as leaders from both the parties are increasingly indulging in acerbic attacks, with the former labelling the ruling outfit as ‘Kamalabai’ and getting the ‘Penguin Sena’ jibe in return. ‘Kamalabai’ is a reference to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) poll symbol – Kamal or lotus, while the term ‘Penguin Sena’ is used by the opponents to deride the Thackeray-led Sena.
Bringing penguins to Mumbai was a pet project of Aaditya Thackeray, son of Uddhav Thackeray and chief of Yuva Sena, the party’s youth wing. Eight Humboldt penguins were brought to the city’s Byculla zoo from Seoul in South Korea in 2016. But this verbal war is not just limited to the Thackeray-led Sena and the BJP alone as the former has also been passing vitriolic remarks against the party’s rebel legislators, who are now part of the state government. The Thackeray faction has been calling the group of rebel lawmakers led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as gaddar’ (traitors) and taunting them with ’50 khoke (boxes)’ remark, implying that each MLA of the Shinde faction got Rs 50 crore to switch loyalty.
Leading the attack against the dissidents is Aaditya Thackeray, who last month dubbed state Health Minister Tanaji Sawant as khekda (crab). And this verbal exchange is expected to escalate further ahead of the crucial polls to the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which both the warring sides are vying to win.
The Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government had collapsed on June 29 this year after a revolt by Shinde and 39 other legislators against the Sena leadership. Shinde was sworn in as the chief minister the next day along with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy. The acrimony between the Thackeray-led Sena and the BJP has intensified ever since.
Of late, the Shiv Sena has started using the word ‘Kamalabai’ for the BJP. While Kamal is the election symbol of the BJP, ‘bai’ in Marathi means a woman. It all started after the Shiv Sena referred to the BJP as Kamalabai in its mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ last month.
It riled the BJP so much that its Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar shot off a letter to Uddhav Thackeray, who is also the editor of ‘Saamana’, and asked him whether his faction be called as Penguin Sena’. However, the Sena continues to address the BJP as Kamalabai and in return the latter addresses the Uddhav faction as Penguin Sena’.
Addressing party workers in suburban Goregaon last month, Uddhav Thackeray attacked the BJP and said, “What is the relation between Kamalabai and Mumbai. I have used the word Kamalabai for the first time because I want to make them realise that this Shiv Sena is Balasaheb’s Shiv Sena. Kamalabai is not the word I coined, it is (Sena founder) Balasaheb (Thackeray) who did it.” The Uddhav Thackeray faction believes that although 40 MLAs and 12 MPs rebelled against the leadership, it is the BJP that engineered the split. The term Kamalabai was mostly used by Bal Thackeray in private and was later used in ‘Saamana’, Congress MP and senior journalist Kumar Ketkar, who has seen the Shiv Sena from close quarters for over five decades, told PTI. Even though the two parties were ideologically aligned on the issue of Hindutva, Bal Thackeray was never very fond of the BJP, he added.
Senior journalist Prakash Akolkar said Bal Thackeray first used the word Kamalabai in 1985. “In 1984, the Shiv Sena and the BJP formed an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls. But like all opposition parties, the two parties, too, were wiped off. In 1985, the BJP joined hands with the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF). At that time, Bal Thackeray in a rally said Kamalabai left us’,” Akolkar recalled.
In his book On My Terms’, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar says that when in September 2006, his daughter Supriya Sule’s candidature was announced for the Rajya Sabha, Bal Thackeray called him up to offer his support. When Pawar said the Sena was in alliance with the BJP, his instant reply was – “Oh don’t worry about Kamalabai (the BJP). She will do what I say.” Akolkar said ‘Penguin Sena’ is a direct jibe at Aaditya Thackeray, who was instrumental in bringing penguins to the city zoo. The zoo is managed by the cash-rich BMC, which the Sena controlled for over 25 years. The project is criticised by the BJP and also by the Congress for high maintenance costs that it incurs.
Responding to critics at the Goregaon rally, Uddhav Thackeray said, “I proudly say that we brought penguins, but being a photographer I have never clicked pictures of penguins.” The Thackerays are known to sear their political rivals with name-calling. For instance, Akolkar pointed out that Bal Thackeray used to address Sharad Pawar as a ‘sack of flour’, an apparent reference to his physique. “Pawar approached the Election Commission, which refrained Thackeray from using the term. But then Bal Thackeray was a cartoonist and had a deep understanding of his opponents’ traits. But this does not go well with the other Thackerays,” Akolkar added.
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