Mumbai, Feb 14 (IANS): Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray Monday asserted that his party was "indestructible" and the Congress could not finish it off even if it had "seven more lives".

"Even if you are reborn seven times, you will fail to destroy the Shiv Sena," Thackeray said, referring to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's recent statements that after the ensuing municipal corporation elections, the Shiv Sena would be wiped out.

Addressing a rally in Bandra-Kurla Complex here, Thackeray declared that the Shiv Sena was necessary for the development and progress of Mumbai, and urged Mumbaikars to vote the Shiv Sena-jeaded alliance back to power in the country's biggest and richest civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Hitting out at his nephew and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's utterances that Thackeray had thrust his son Uddhav on the party, the 85-year old leader said the reality was different.

"It was Raj who proposed making Uddhav as the Shiv Sena executive president," Thackeray said, reiterating his known stand on the issue.

The rally was the second and final addressed by Thackeray in the run up to the crucial Feb 16 (Thursday) polls to the BMC and nine other major civic bodies all over the state, the campaigning for which ends Tuesday.

Last Saturday, Thackeray addressed a rally in adjacent Thane district.