A day after the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde issued an advertisement citing a survey showing Mr. Shinde to be more “popular” that Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, the Shinde camp went into damage control mode on Wednesday to placate their ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), by issuing a second advertisement jointly featuring Mr. Shinde and Mr. Fadnavis as the face of the State’s development.
The second advertisement also including pictures of late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, who was conspicuously absent from the Tuesday’s full page advertisement issued by the Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction, despite Mr. Shinde’s repeated claim that his group — and not that of Uddhav Thackeray — was the real inheritor of Bal Thackeray’s political ideals.
The latest advertisement also features Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with Mr. Shinde’s political mentor, the late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, above a beaming picture of Mr. Shinde and Mr. Fadnavis, with the words below saying: “BJP-Shinde Sena government was a government of the dreams of the State’s public”.
