Days after the Election Commission of India legitimised the group led by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde as the real Shiv Sena and allotted the bow and arrow symbol, he presided over the first-ever national executive committee meeting as the ‘mukhya neta’ or the chief leader.
The meeting saw Shiv Sena leaders, MPs and MLAs unanimously authorising Shinde all the rights to take decisions. In the meeting, Shinde also told delegates that it would not claim the Shiv Sena Bhavan.
The meeting passed a series of resolutions including seeking Bharat Ratna for revolutionary nationalist Hindutva icon Veer Savarkar and renaming the Churchgate railway station of the Western Railway after former Union Finance Minister Sir Chintaman Deshmukh, who was earlier the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
"The first meeting of the national executive was held under the chairmanship of Shinde saheb, the mukhya neta," state Industries Minister Uday Samant told reporters after the meeting on Tuesday night.
It may be mentioned, ahead of the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, the Shiv Sena then led by Uddhav Thackeray in its election manifesto sought Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar.