Once a close friend, Sena social media head Kanal launches attack on Aaditya

On Tuesday, in response to a tweet by Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha member and spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi, Rahool Kanal, head of Shiv Sena’s (Shinde) social media cell, put out a long post that directly attacked Aaditya Thackeray.
Kanal’s post created a stir in Mumbai’s political circles because until a few months ago he was one of Aaditya Thackeray’s closest aides. The fashioned the Shiv Sena Sena’s social media strategy and Aaditya, Uddhav and Rashmi Thackeray had also attended his wedding last year. But as Tuesday’s post on the social media platform X made it apparent that Aaditya was now under attack not just from the BJP but also from his erstwhile associates.
“I have in my possession a list of Aaditya Thackeray’s close associates who were awarded contracts without any legitimate credentials, leading to the blatant misuse
of BMC and state government funds,” posted Kanal before going on to list the various contracts. The timing and sharpness of his outburst coincides with the Shiv Sena’s (UBT) attack on chief minister Eknath Shinde over the toppled Shivaji statue at Malvan. Kanal’s post was in fact triggered by Priyanka Chaturvedi citing a Saamna report to say that the sculptor who made the statue, Jaydev Apte, was only 25 years old and had been given the contract by Shinde despite little prior experience in making large statues because he was Shrikant Shinde’s personal friend.
Riled by the reference to friendship, Kanal said it was Aaditya’s friends and associates on the other hand who had been given out of turn contracts. There ranged from contracts for Covid Jumbo Units to Remdesivir procurement during Covid. The same consideration was later extended to them for Worli-Aarey depot project and for hoarding contracts across the city as well as for digital campaign contracts for all government social media platforms, claimed Kanal. He also alluded to Aaditya’s “cousin” who had been a significant beneficiary of some of these contracts.
Chaturvedi refused to respond to Kanal’s comments. She and Kanal have had a similar political trajectory—they started their careers with the Congress before moving on to the Shiv Sena where they worked closely. But such is the acrimony between the two Senas now that Kanal even posted a warning to her: “Don’t push me to reveal the list of people you’ve personally met in the past to broker deals and agreement.”
However, speaking to HT on Wednesday evening, Kanal said his outburst on X was a one-off. In future he would not be attacking Aaditya Thackeray and that in his capacity as the social media head of the Shiv Sena he would rather focus on the “good work done by the CM like the Ladki Bahin scheme, the Vayoshree scheme for senior citizens and other social schemes,’’ said Kanal. “The Shiv Sena (UBT) will want us to get busy in the trap of their making and keep us engaged in attacking them but I won’t fall for that,” he said. “I know how to generate social media content.”
Kanal’s attack on Aaditya is not an isolated one. Earlier this week, Sena (UBT) and BJP workers clashed at Sambhajinagar outside the hotel where Aaditya Thackeray was staying. The BJP workers were demanding a probe into Aaditya’s role in the death of Disha Salian. The one-time manager of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Disha Salian had died by suicide a few months before the actor’s suicide. Despite the repeated pleas of her parents to leave their daughter be, there have been attempts to politicise her tragic death and link her to Aaditya Thackeray. Last year Devendra Fadnavis had appointed an SIT to look into Thackeray’s connection with Salian’s death but nothing ever came of it.
“Aadityaji is a leader of the future and his opponents want to demoralise him. A similar technique was used for Rahul Gandhi,” said Anil Parab the Shiv Sena (UBT) leader. However, he too refused to discuss the specifics of Kanal’s allegation about the allotment of contracts during the MVA government.