Duo or die

Uddhav and Raj Thackeray are fighting for political survival. Joining hands seems an exciting option, but making it work will be a challenge for the cousins

- BY DNYANESH JATHAR

The story goes back to 1999. Sharad Pawar had left the Congress to form the Nationalist Congress Party and, as a result, the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance emerged as the single largest block in the assembly elections. There was, however, no consensus on who would become chief minister. After many rounds of discussions, they had a name—Sureshdada Jain, a veteran leader from Jalgaon who had defected from the Congress to the Sena. The alliance was short of majority and Jain had promised to win over 20 additional legislators.

A few leaders led by the BJP’s Prakash Javadekar went to Matoshree, Bal Thackeray's residence, to seek his approval for Jain. Thackeray’s son Uddhav was not active in politics then, and his nephew Raj was widely seen as his successor. Javadekar told Raj, who was then the chief of the Sena's student wing Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, that they wanted an audience with his uncle. Raj told them Thackeray was taking a nap and would not like to be disturbed. When Javadekar told him it was urgent, Raj went to Thackeray's room, woke him up and told him that Javadekar and team had come with the name of a potential chief minister. "Who is it?" asked Thackeray. "Sureshdada Jain," said Raj.

Thackeray gave him a stern look and said, "Only a Maharashtrian can be the chief minister of Maharashtra." Jain was a Gujarati. That ended the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance's dreams of getting back to power.

This story is a legend of sorts among the cadres of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Raj and Uddhav often narrate it to their leaders and cadres alike, stressing the fact that the cause of the Marathi language and the Marathi manoos came first on their list of priorities; hindutva comes after.