Mumbai: The first phase of the Bal Thackeray memorial is complete and the next phase is expected to be completed by January 2026, ahead of the birth anniversary of the Shiv Sena patriarch.
However, politics has heated up as the Shinde faction of the Shiv Sena passed a proposal in its internal meeting to remove former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray from the chairperson’s post of the Bal Thackeray memorial. The proposal initiated by senior leader Ramdas Kadam will be sent to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis by 24 January.
Kadam told ThePrint that since Uddhav had aligned with the Congress, he gave up on Thackeray’s ideology and hence he should be removed.
“I have secured many details from RTI (Right To Information) showing alleged corruption in the functioning of the trust, and I will reveal them in the coming days. I will send the proposal to the CM on 24 January. My stance is very clear. Balasaheb Thackeray at a rally had clearly said that ‘if I have to go with Congress, then I will shut down my shop that is Shiv Sena’. But Uddhav Thackeray discarded Balasaheb’s ideology just for the CM chair,” Kadam said.
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Uddhav headed the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for a 31-month period from November 2019 to June 2022. The memorial trust was formed in 2016, with Uddhav, his son Aaditya Thackeray and former minister Subhash Desai among its members.
From the camp of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), or the Shiv Sena (UBT), Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sawant told ThePrint that the politics surrounding Bal Thackeray’s name just “shows the level of politics in the state and how it has degraded”.
Coming up at a sea-facing heritage site in Dadar, the memorial is being constructed in two phases by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA). “We are hopeful that the entire completion of the memorial will happen by January 2026, right in time for Balasaheb Thackeray’s birth anniversary (which falls on 23 January),” conservation architect Abha Narain Lambah, who is in charge of the project, told ThePrint.
Ever since the split of the Shiv Sena in 2022, Eknath Shinde and his party has been trying to appropriate Bal Thackeray’s legacy claiming that by joining hands with Congress, Uddhav has moved on from Bal Thackeray. For the Uddhav faction, the memorial is an emotional plank as well as important to assert claim on Thackeray’s legacy politically.
In a meeting on 13 January that was attended by MPs Shrikant Shinde, Naresh Mhaske and Ravindra Waikar among others, a proposal was moved by former minister Ramdas Kadam seeking removal of Uddhav from the chairpersonship of the memorial.
“Just for the chair of CM, Uddhav Thackeray gave up on Hindutva ideology. From the stage with Rahul Gandhi, he was ashamed of using the word ‘Hindu’. So how does he have the right to remain the chairman of the memorial trust?” Kadam told ThePrint.
However, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sawant called the move “low-level politics”.
“All these people grew politically by staying in the party. After the death of Balasaheb, Uddhav Thackeray made them ministers in 2014 when we (the undivided Sena) came to power. And now they have the audacity to question his legacy. Just shows how low the politics of the state has fallen and how low they have stooped,” the former Union minister said.
“If his son doesn’t know him well, who does? Besides, it is a family of artists and this entire memorial is built keeping in mind minute details about Balasaheb’s life.”
Also Read: SP decides to walk out of ‘communal’ MVA after Sena (UBT)’s celebration of Babri demolition
‘Challenging project’
In March 2021, the MMRDA got the nod to undertake the Rs 400-crore project. While around Rs 250 crore was set aside for the first phase, the remaining Rs 150 crore was earmarked for the second leg of the construction.
Lambah told ThePrint that the construction was challenging because of “the site’s heritage value as well as sea-facing front”. Getting permission related to Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) was difficult, she added.
“Since the site, the Mayoral Bungalow, has a heritage value, we couldn’t touch it. But as a part of our project, we did the entire restoration of the bungalow,” she explained. “There were height restrictions, and we were not allowed to build anything higher than 4.5 ft as we were told it cannot be higher than the plinth of the bungalow.”
Even though the museum would be 11 metre below ground, the architect said, the design and construction would facilitate natural light throughout the building.
As the structure is close to the sea, the construction will be double-walled like a thermal insulated flask. The new building is spread over 40,000 sq ft, and despite that it does not obstruct the view of the heritage mayoral building, she added.
“Once the museum opens, not only will the public have access to the museum, but they will have a spectacular sea view as well,” Lambah said.
“Initially, we started off with 211 trees and were instructed by Uddhav Thackeray to not cut any trees. So we built it around it and ended up with 236 trees,” she said, highlighting the environment-friendly construction at the site.
The second phase would highlight the life and times of the Sena founder, Uddhav had
said at a press conference in the second week of January.
His son and former Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray had promised to deliver a fitting memorial for the late leader. “The architecture is aesthetic and has an artistic sense. The underground work was complicated as the bungalow is close to the sea. His (Balasaheb) life was an open book and the memorial should reflect that,” Aaditya had said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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