More than eight years after his death, the ruling Shiv Sena honoured its founder and patriarch Bal Thackeray by installing a nine-feet tall bronze statue inside a traffic island near the National Gallery of Modern Art on  MG Road in south Mumbai, on the occasion of his 95th birth anniversary on Saturday.

Amid a shower of flowers, sounding of drums and incessant applause, Maharashtra chief minister and  Balasaheb’s political successor Uddhav Thackeray unveiled the statue of his late father with both his hands in the air, a pose that had become his trademark gesture when he addressed Dussehra rallies year after year ever since the Shiv Sena was founded in 1966.

Balasaheb, who passed away on November 17, 2012, had stayed away from power all his life. He was not around to see his son Uddhav become the chief minister of Maharashtra seven years later.

That he was a tall leader and is respected by all from sections of people even long after this death could be evidenced from the fact that leaders from all political parties – like NCP chief Sharad Pawar, senior BJP leader and former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat, MNS chief and Uddhav’s cousin Raj Thackeray and Republican Party of India (A) President and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale --turned out for Balasaheb’s statue unveiling ceremony.

Erected on a two feet-high landscaped pedestal set up inside a traffic island located between Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and National Gallery of Modern Art, the 9 feet statue of the late Sena chief is made of 1,200 kilograms of bronze. The statue has been sculpted by veteran artist Shashikant Wadke.

The Sena has tried to capture late Balasaheb’s status of being “Hindu  HridaySamrat ’, a title that lakhs of his supporters bestowed on him in his life time, by inscribing his familiar opening line “Jamlelya majha tamaam Hindu bandhavano, bhaginino ani matano” (All my Hindu brothers, sisters and mothers gathered here) of his public addresses.

With a smile on his face, Wadke has sculpted late Balasaheb in     his traditional flowing kurta-pyjama-angavastram, with his pair of square-framed thick spectacles and familiar ‘Rudraksh mala’ around his neck.

Balsaheb’s is the third Thackeray statue sculpted by Wadke. Earlier, he had sculpted the statues of Balasaheb Thackeray’s wife Meenatai and his father Keshav alias Prabodhankar Thackeray.

From the Thackeray clan, Uddhav, his wife Rashmi, Tourism Minister-son Aditya Thackeray, his cousin Raj Thackeray and his son Amit were present at the statue unveiling ceremony.

This is first statue of late Balasaheb to have been installed in Mumbai.  Earlier a 22-feet tall statue of the leader had come up in Navi Mumbai.  A grand Balasaheb Thackeray memorial is coming at the erstwhile Mayor’s Bungalow at Shivaji Park in north-central Mumbai.

In the running to the installation of Balasqaheb’s statue inside a traffic island in downtown south Mumbai there was resistance to the move from a Citizens’ group. Vice-admiral (retd) I C Rao, who heads NGO Apli Mumbai, has written to the Mumbai collector, demanding denial of permission for the erection of the statue. He had cited a 2013 Supreme Court order that had said that state governments should not allow any statues on public roads and pavements.

Among other things, Vice Admiral Rao wrote to the Collector: “... We reiterate that the erection of a statue at a traffic island in Shyama Prasad Mukherjee chowk will create a traffic hazard, affecting the safety of pedestrians, visitors who may indulge in taking selfies or merely stop on the carriageway to view the statue”.

However, the Shiv Sena-ruled Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) went ahead and granted permission to Prabodhan Prakashan, a book publication with which the Thackeray family is associated. Ignoring resistance by the citizens’ group. However, the Sena’s move to install late Balasaheb’s statue is unlikely to face any legal hurdles, as  the Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee, the state home department and the Mumbai collector have granted permission  to the erection of the statue.