Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray reunited after 20 years at a public rally in Worli, Mumbai, for an event called ‘Awaj Marathicha’—the Voice of the Marathi.
Following the joint rally of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj Thackeray, cadres of the two sides are now hoping that the bonhomie witnessed on Saturday will soon translate into an alliance for local body elections. Whether that will happen remains to be seen but conspiracy theories and speculations are abound over why and who scripted the reunion.
Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray reunited after 20 years at a public rally in Worli, Mumbai, for an event called ‘Awaj Marathicha’—the Voice of the Marathi. The event had been jointly organised by Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS to mark the withdrawal of government resolutions related to the three-language policy in primary schools.
Politics is all about optics, in those terms the rally was a success. But for many observers, Raj’s response to Uddhav was “a bit reserved”, thus giving rise to speculations that there may be many a slip between the cup and the lip. In any case the two cousins need to trash many issues and think beyond local body polls if they want to establish “Brand Thackeray” again for political survival faced with the might of the BJP.
‘Brand Thackeray’
The Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde—the breakaway faction which is a part of the ruling Mahayuti government led by the BJP—has dismissed the possibility of re-emergence of ‘brand Thackeray’ or impacting Maharashtra politics in a big way.
Shinde’s supporters say that even during the days of Bal Thackeray the party could not have formed the government independently and that the Thackeray cousins have come together just to protect their individual interests, not for the Marathi manoos.
Meanwhile, efforts are being made to ensure no further disputes over language
Theories abound
Theories abound over who scripted the reunion, one is that Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did that to “cut down to size deputy CM Eknath Shinde”. Leaders from the ruling Mahayuti and opposition Congress-NCP(SP) point to some closed-door meetings between Fadnavis and Raj to buttress that claim.
It was after the meeting that the Fadnavis government issued a revised GR on Hindi as third language that restarted the agitation against the decision, they claim.
After that the estranged Thackeray cousins planned separate rallies. Then Raj called up Sanjay Raut for a joint rally and what followed is now in public domain. A day after the reunion, Fadnavis launched his podcast series titled, ‘Maharashtra Dharma’ to talk about Maharashtra’s spiritual history and tradition of social reformers. The point is the reunion can cause division of traditional Shiv Sena votes in upcoming local body polls and in turn setback to the Shinde-led Sena.
Another theory is that NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar is the one who advised the cousins to get together in order to make the breakaway factions of Shiv Sena and NCP (currently with the BJP) non-entities otherwise they themselves would become irrelevant.
Though according to Thackeray supporters, cousins acted on their own, in mind pressure from respective cadres and the need of the hour. Afterall, earlier this year, Raj did speak of making up with estranged cousin Uddhav.
