Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena obtained a blow on Monday, the day of founder Bal Thackeray’s demise anniversary, because the chief of Mumbai’s dabbawala neighborhood expressed displeasure with the social gathering and pledged assist for the rival Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP).

Forward of the Maharashtra native physique polls, Subhash Talekar, president of the 135-year-old Mumbai Dabbawala Affiliation, launched a video assertion saying the explanation for the shift to the BJP was the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s failure to meet guarantees and meet calls for.

Mumbai’s dabbawalas, regional staff who ship scorching lunches to town’s college students and workplace goers, have traditionally aligned with the Shiv Sena’s core ideology of “sons of the soil” and the rights of the “Marathi manoos” (Marathi individuals).

Talekar claimed that throughout the 2017 Mumbai Municipal Company elections, the Shiv Sena, beneath the management of Uddhav Thackeray, had made some guarantees to dabbawalas in Mumbai which weren’t met after the social gathering’s victory. The manifesto launched by the social gathering in 2017 said that it could assist set up an impartial firm that will organise the dabbawalas of Mumbai and supply Rs 5 crore as monetary assist to the corporate.

Talekar instructed ThePrint, “The organisation was promised to be given free bicycle parking at railway stations throughout town. Moreover, we had been additionally promised free training and healthcare for the dabbawalas’ households via company and social departments. No such help was made accessible after they received the elections.”

The affiliation has now introduced assist for the BJP, giving credit score to Fadnavis for resolving the problem of housing for dabbawalas.

Anand Dubey, nationwide spokesperson for the Shiv Sena (UBT) instructed ThePrint, “The social gathering and the dabbawalas share an previous relationship due to the Marathi staff. If they don’t seem to be happy with us, we’ll sit with them and make efforts to resolve the problems. For the reason that dabbawalas are traditionally related to town and its individuals, we don’t need them to be upset with us. We hope that we’re in a position to persuade them and supply them with no matter we are able to.”

“Mumbai presently has roughly 2,500 dabbawalas offering their supply companies within the metropolis. They’re natives of villages in districts of Northern Pune and should have an effect on the polls of Zila Parishad (District Council). It might not make that a lot of a distinction in polls right here besides in particular pockets of town the place the dabbawalas reside, like Andheri, 7 Bunglows and Dahisar,” Talekar instructed ThePrint.

Assist for the BJP

Even in 2019, earlier than the meeting elections, the affiliation had aligned itself with Thackeray’s Shiv Sena stating that the social gathering had all the time stood for the welfare of dabbawalas.

“It is just the Shiv Sena which all the time stood with us for our welfare. It has additionally promised to assemble a ‘Dabbawala Bhavan’ for us. Solely the Sena has included Mumbai’s dabbawalas in its ‘Imaginative and prescient Mumbai’ marketing campaign and it has been taking a number of initiatives for our betterment,” Talekar instructed PTI in April 2019.

In March 2022, the Shiv Sena inaugurated the Dabbewala Bhavan, a welfare centre in Bandra for the lunch suppliers, fulfilling one of many guarantees made earlier than the 2017 civic physique elections. However the 3,000 sq ft centre on the bottom flooring of an current constructing in Bandra’s Shirley space disenchanted dabbawalas, who had been anticipating an impartial construction.

Up to now couple of years, there was a considerable amount of resentment amongst dabbawalla in opposition to the Shiv Sena. “Shiv Sena was in energy within the Mumbai Municipal Company for 5 years. For 2 and a half years, Uddhav Thackeray himself was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. But, no correspondence was exchanged with reference to the guarantees made,” Talekar instructed ThePrint.

He additionally claimed CM Devendra Fadnavis has determined to allot 500 sq ft land price Rs 25,000 in Thane’s Dive Anjur to every dabbawala household, together with Maharashtra Housing and Space Growth Authority (MHADA) schemes. “He had additionally offered a fund of Rs 5 crore to renovate the (current) Dabbawala Bhavan.”

Urging the CM, Talekar mentioned, “The typical earnings of the dabbawalas is Rs 5,000 monthly. No financial institution can be prepared to provide them a mortgage of Rs 25 lakh. I request the CM to subsidise the quantity of the plot to Rs 10-12 lakh like he did for the ‘girni kamgar’ (mill staff).”

On 15 August 2025, Fadnavis inaugurated the Mumbai Dabbawala Worldwide Expertise Centre, a museum in Mumbai’s Bandra West devoted to town’s iconic lunch supply service, providing guests an immersive expertise into the historical past and precision of the dabbawala system, which has been operating since 1890.

“MLA Shrikant Bharatiya has up to date the Bhavan with exhausting work and dedication for the trigger. The chief minister has taken a optimistic position in fixing the issues of the Dabbawala staff, attributable to which the employees are assured that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will resolve their issues,” Talekar, president of the affiliation, instructed ThePrint.

He added, “Contemplating all this, the Mumbai Dabbawala Affiliation has determined to face behind Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis within the upcoming elections.”

(Edited by Viny Mishra)

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