Mumbai(PTI): Ahead of his Dussehra rally, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Wednesday tweeted a couplet by famous Hindi poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, which said that whosoever is his heir will be his son and not vice versa.

Shinde's tweet appears to be targeted at former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aaditya Thackeray. While Uddhav Thackeray heads one faction of the Shiv Sena, Shinde leads another camp. Both the leaders are scheduled to address the Dussehra rallies of their respective factions in Mumbai this evening.

Bachchan's couplet posted by Shinde said, "My son, being my son will not be my heir, whoever will be my heir will be my son."

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government collapsed on June 29 this year after Shinde rebelled against the Sena leadership along with 39 party legislators. A day later, he took oath as the chief minister with senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis as his deputy.

Aaditya Thackeray, who represents Worli Assembly constituency in Mumbai, was a minister in the MVA government, while Shinde's son Shrikant is a Lok Sabha member from Kalyan constituency in Thane district.

Shinde, who heads the rebel group of the Shiv Sena which has the backing of 39 MLAs and 12 MPs, will address a mega rally at Bandra Kurla Complex, while Uddhav Thackeray will address a rally at the iconic Shivaji Park ground.

Both the factions are locked in a bitter tussle to prove which of them is the "real" Shiv Sena.

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New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Culture allegedly spent Rs 76.13 lakh on print advertisements marking the 100-year celebrations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), according to a Right to Information (RTI) reply.

The information was sought by RTI activist Ajay Basudev Bose, who filed an application seeking details on expenditure incurred by the ministry for advertisements commemorating the RSS centenary.

Bose shared a picture of the reply from the ministry on his official ‘X’ handle.

“It is informed that an amount of Rs 76,13,129 has been spent on advertisement given in various print media by the Ministry of Culture on the occasion of the completion of 100 years of RSS,” the government’s reply stated.

Bose questioned the expenditure in the post X, “when Everyone knows RSS is Not Registered & Does not Pay any Tax is it justified to spend Tax Payers Money on such Private event??”

Reacting to the development, Karnataka’s IT-BT and Panchayat Raj Minister Priyank Kharge also criticised the spending.

In a post on X, he asked why public money was being used for what he described as a “private ideological project.”

"Modi Sarkar spent Rs 76,13,129 of public money on newspaper advertisements to celebrate 100 years of the RSS. Why is Government spending taxpayers money on an unregistered, non-tax-paying organisation to celebrate their centenary?," he added. 

According to reports, the RSS describes itself as a volunteer-based organisation and has stated that it functions as a body of individuals rather than a registered entity.

Founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in 1925, the organisation is marking its centenary year beginning from Vijaydashami in 2025, with the milestone observed on October 2.