Shiv Sena (UBT) marks Ram Mandir inauguration in Ayodhya with procession in Nashik

Nashik (Maharashtra), Jan 22: The Shiv Sena (UBT) took out a massive procession Nashik to mark the Pran Pratisthan of the Lord Ram Temple in Ayodhya and pray at the famed Kalaram Mandir here on Monday.

The procession, in which party leader Aditya Thackeray and others participated, went through some of the prominent roads in the town with activists sporting saffron flags, and raising slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram'.

"The dream of Balasaheb Thackeray has been fulfilled and the sacrifices of all the 'kar-sevaks' have borne fruits today… Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram, Patit Pavan SitaRam… Jai Siyaram," said Aditya Thackeray.

SS-UBT President and former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray went and prayed at Kalaram Mandir here on Monday evening. He is scheduled to address a public rally later on Monday.

Thackeray was extended an invite to the Pran Pratistha ceremony in Ayodhya, but along with several other political parties and allies, he decided to skip the event.

From Tuesday, January 23, the SS-UBT will kickstart its poll campaign for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, said a party leader. The day is auspicious on two counts -- it is the 98th birth anniversary of the original Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray who founded the party on June 19, 1966, and it is also the 127th birth anniversary of the legendary freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose.

The SS-UBT has launched a mega-campaign here involving a 'Maha-Shibir', a 'Khula Adhiveshan', a procession, and a rally in this pilgrim centre as an attempt to revive the party after its vertical split in June 2022, followed by legal, political and legislative reverses in the last 19 tumultuous months.

This year, the party – a constituent of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the state and the INDIA bloc at the national level – will face three major elections, civic, parliament and assembly in quick succession that would decide the future of its battle for its political survival amid huge pressures.

Besides revamping and rejuvenating the party founded by his father, Thackeray's immediate challenges are the vexed seat-sharing talks with the other allies, Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (SP), and the 'targeting' of several of its leaders by various central investigation agencies in different cases.