This year in May Eknath Shinde wa promoting the biopic of late Shiv Sena Anand Dighe. He came into spotlight later when he led the rebellion against the MVA government. The newly appointed CM of Maharashtra Eknath Shinde considers Anand Dighe as his mentor in politics. The late leader of Shiv Sena, Anand Dighe died aged 50 in 2001. Also, he was known as the ‘Thackery of the Thane’ like Balasaheb Thackeray has been to Mumbai.
The history bears it out that just Montana after the release of that biopic ‘Dharmaveer: Mukkam Post Thane’, the politics in Maharashtra once again became active with new plots. The name of Anand Dighe was time and again heard in the political circles when Eknath Shinde became the captain of the ship rebelling against the ruling government led by Uddhav Thackery.
He allied with the BJP and formed a new government in the state with the claim to support ‘real Hindutva’ by Balasaheb Thackeray. Shinde claims that he led the rebellion to protect the ideologies of Anand Dighe and Balasaheb Thackery.
The popular leader of Thane
Anand Dighe was a popular leader who expanded the cover of Shivsena in Thane. Along with that he even established support for Shivsena in Kalyan, Dombivli, Ambernath, and Bhiwandi, among others. Just like Balasaheb, he did not contest elections but kept a check on the public mood. He even had a public darbar similar to him where he used to settle problems and disputes of the public.Â
Many analysts are of the view that he was a kind of superhuman figure like the one from fiction who would help others. People say that nearly 50 to 100 people came every evening for help or to thank him for their problems.Â
In 1989, he was taken into arrest for the murder of Sridhar Khopkar. Dighe was a Shiv Sena corporator alleged for cross-voting which supposedly led to Sena’s defeat in the Thane mayoral election. He was granted bail and admitted to the hospital for a leg fracture in 2001. At the age of 50 that time in hospital, when he suffered a massive heart attack and died.Â
The Shivsena workers were so enraged by the incident that some vehicles were set on fire. At the same time, they displayed their anger on the streets and allegedly damaged public property. Â
Anand Dighe and Balasaheb Thackery
A controversy came into light when CM Uddhav Thackery walked out halfway from the screening of Anand Dighe’s biopic where Shinde and the son of the late Shivsena leader were present. To which he replied that he could not see the accident and death scene in the last. His death was disturbing to everyone including Balasaheb Thackeray. Â
During the end of his life, there have been speculations about his tiff with Balasaheb Thackeray. Another instance for their twisted relationship was when the latter gave ‘security reasons’ for his absence from Anand Dighe’s funeral.Â
Summing up,
Anand Dighe, the mentor of new Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde was his guide into the world of politics. Even in the biopic, there has been the mention of CM Shinde who used to implement the decisions by Anand Dighe to solve the problems of people. During Eknath Shinde’s first speech in the Legislative Assembly, he shared the role of his mentor in his life. He paid his respects to his mentor’s memorial before going back home for the first time since the rebellion began. One can even spot the impact of Anand Dighe on Eknath Shinde’s working style, appearance, and ideologies.Â
