Mumbai, Feb 25 (IANS): A week after losing the party name and symbol, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) started a weeklong 'Shivgarjana' and 'Shivsamvad' campaigns in Maharashtra from Saturday to boost the morale of local activists and the masses.

Top leaders of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and other frontal organistions like Mahila Aghadi, Yuva Sena shall tour different parts ofrom Saturday to March 3, in small groups which will fan out in all the 35 districts divided among themselves.

For the present, Maharashtra legislators are not joining the two campaigns in view of the Budget Session starting from February 27.

However, the Sena (UBT) MPs are part of the statewide political drive, billed as the "start of the 2024 polls campaign" by chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut and others.

This is the first direct contact with the masses and the party machinery at the lowest levels, after the Election Commission of India (ECI) awarded the original 'Shiv Sena' and 'Bow-and-Arrow' symbol on February 17 to the breakaway group led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The leaders touring over the next seven days will make efforts to strengthen the party organisation at the grassroots level, inform the people on the Sena (UT) Shakhas in the state, the kind of vacancies, information on the local concerns, problems which can be highlighted as "issues" before the state government.

Uddhav Thackeray, his son Aditya Thackeray and others are likely to tour in the second phase of the campaign later.

Teams of leaders started the dual campaigns in Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg (led by Subhash Desai and others), Thane, Palghar (Rajan Vichare), Ahmednagar, Solapur, Pune (Vinod Ghosalkar), Sangli, Kolhapur, Satara (Sanjay Raut). Sambhajinagar, Jalna, Beed, Parbhani (Anil Kadam), Nanded, Latur, Dharashiv, Hingoli (Anil Kadam), Nashik, Dhule, Jalgaon, Nandurbar (Anant Geete), Nagpur, Bhandara, Gondiya, Wardha (Arvind Sawant), Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Yavatmal, Washim (Chandrakant Khaire) and Buldhana, Akola, Amravati (Omraje Nimbalkar).