Who Was Anand Dighe? ‘OG’ Shiv Sainik & Eknath Shinde Mentor Whose Legacy Is At Stake This Election

Seen as a champion of the common man, Anand Dighe remained unmarried his whole life, and is credited with widening the party’s influence in Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024: With his full beard and red tika, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde seems to channel the leader he has repeatedly credited as his mentor — Anand Dighe, the late Shiv Sena leader from Thane who seems to enjoy an almost God-like reverence among his followers.

Cut to 2024, Shinde is contesting from his bastion Kopri-Pachpakhadi against Dighe’s nephew Kedar Prakash Dighe, who is a candidate of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). As of 1 pm, the former had a lead of more than 54,000 votes over Kedar Dighe.

Who Was Anand Dighe?

Anand Dighe is seen as one of the original Shiv Sainiks, in the mould of founder Bal Thackeray. According to a Times of India report from the time, Dighe was involved in the construction business, and also owned some hotels. Seen as a champion of the common man, he remained unmarried his whole life, and is credited with widening the party’s influence in Thane and Navi Mumbai.

Dighe is the subject of two movies — Dharmaveer (2022) and Dharmaveer 2 (2024) — made under Shinde’s patronage. The movies detail his life, his influence on Shinde, and portray the CM’s 2022 decision to split the Shiv Sena as an ode to his mentor’s principles.

The movies project Dighe as a people’s leader, who was flooded with rakhis by women on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan — one scene shows him taking to task a Muslim rakhi sister’s husband over domestic abuse. A more emotive scene shows Shinde standing on a pier in Mumbai and interacting with Dighe’s spirit when he feels cornered in the united Shiv Sena’s alliance with former arch-rival Congress.

He died on August 26, 2001, after suffering a heart attack while undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in a road accident. He was 50 when he died, and his death — surrounded by multiple conspiracy theories — was not taken well by his supporters, who set fire to the hospital (Singhania Hospital, a 200-bed facility) where Dighe was admitted. Hindu Frontline reported at the time that a 6-month-old child and a 65-year-old man died after their life-support machines were wrecked in the assault.

The Sainiks also vandalised public property on the roads, with the then police commissioner describing the violence as “a sudden madness… and a spontaneous reaction… over a loved one’s death”, Frontline reported.