By Kavita Mistry 
Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena received a blow on Monday, the day of founder Bal Thackeray’s death anniversary, as the leader of Mumbai’s dabbawala community expressed displeasure with the party and pledged support for the rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Ahead of the Maharashtra local body polls, Subhash Talekar, president of the 135-year-old Mumbai Dabbawala Association, released a video statement saying the reason for the shift to the BJP was the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s failure to fulfill promises and meet demands.
The 135-year-old Mumbai Dabbawala Association, a non-governmental organisation that provides guidance to the dabbawallas (lunch-box carriers), had supported Shiv Sena (UBT) in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha Elections and the Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
Mumbai’s dabbawalas, regional workers who deliver hot lunches to the city’s students and office goers, have historically aligned with the Shiv Sena’s core ideology of “sons of the soil” and the rights of the “Marathi manoos” (Marathi people).
Talekar claimed that during the 2017 Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, the Shiv Sena, under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray, had made some promises to dabbawalas in Mumbai which were not met after the party’s victory. The manifesto released by the party in 2017 stated that it would help establish an independent company that would organise the dabbawalas of Mumbai and provide Rs 5 crore as financial support to the company.
Talekar told ThePrint, “The organisation was promised to be given free bicycle parking at railway stations across the city. Furthermore, we were also promised free education and healthcare for the dabbawalas’ families through corporate and social departments. No such assistance was made available after they won the elections.”
The association has now announced support for the BJP, giving credit to Fadnavis for resolving the issue of housing for dabbawalas.
Anand Dubey, national spokesperson for the Shiv Sena (UBT) told ThePrint, “The party and the dabbawalas share an old relationship because of the Marathi workers. If they are not pleased with us, we will sit with them and make efforts to resolve the issues. Since the dabbawalas are historically connected to the city and its people, we don’t want them to be upset with us. We hope that we are able to convince them and provide them with whatever we can.”
“Mumbai currently has approximately 2,500 dabbawalas providing their delivery services in the city. They are natives of villages in districts of Northern Pune and may affect the polls of Zila Parishad (District Council). It may not make that much of a difference in polls here except in specific pockets of the city where the dabbawalas reside, like Andheri, 7 Bunglows and Dahisar,” Talekar told ThePrint.
Support for the BJP
Even in 2019, before the assembly elections, the association had aligned itself with Thackeray’s Shiv Sena stating that the party had always stood for the welfare of dabbawalas.
“It is only the Shiv Sena which always stood with us for our welfare. It has also promised to construct a ‘Dabbawala Bhavan’ for us. Only the Sena has included Mumbai’s dabbawalas in its ‘Vision Mumbai’ campaign and it has been taking several initiatives for our betterment,” Talekar told 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 the promises made before the 2017 civic body elections. But the 3,000 sq ft centre on the ground floor of an existing building in Bandra’s Shirley area disappointed dabbawalas, who were expecting an independent structure.
In the past couple of years, there has been a large amount of resentment among dabbawalla against the Shiv Sena. “Shiv Sena was in power in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation for five years. For two and a half years, Uddhav Thackeray himself was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Yet, no correspondence was exchanged with regards to the promises made,” Talekar told ThePrint.
He also claimed CM Devendra Fadnavis has decided to allot 500 sq ft land worth Rs 25 lakh in Thane’s Dive Anjur to each dabbawala family, along with Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) schemes. “He had also provided a fund of Rs 5 crore to renovate the (existing) Dabbawala Bhavan.”
Urging the CM, Talekar said, “The average earnings of the dabbawalas is Rs 5,000 per month. No bank will be ready to give them a loan of Rs 25 lakh. I request the CM to subsidise the amount of the plot to Rs 10-12 lakh like he did for the ‘girni kamgar’ (mill workers).”
On 15 August 2025, Fadnavis inaugurated the Mumbai Dabbawala International Experience Centre, a museum in Mumbai’s Bandra West dedicated to the city’s iconic lunch delivery service, offering visitors an immersive experience into the history and precision of the dabbawala system, which has been running since 1890.
“MLA Shrikant Bharatiya has updated the Bhavan with hard work and dedication for the cause. The chief minister has taken a positive role in solving the problems of the Dabbawala workers, due to which the workers are confident that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will solve their problems,” Talekar, president of the association, told ThePrint.
He added, “Considering all this, the Mumbai Dabbawala Association has decided to stand behind Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the upcoming elections.”
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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