Uddhav Thackeray In The Eye Of A Storm

CM Uddhav Thackeray is under fire as Maharashtra struggles to contain the pandemic and revive industrial growth in the state. The poor handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case has done him no favours

- Kiran D. Tare

BIG STRIDES? CM Uddhav Thackeray with son and minister Aaditya Thackeray at the Vidhan Bhavan on the first day of the monsoon session, September 7, 2020

When he took over as the 19th chief minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, the wildlife photography enthusiast-turned-politician looked like he would bring something fresh to the table. The Shiv Sena chief had formed a coalition government, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA), with two unlikely allies—the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress; he also promised to make the farmers chintamukta (tension-free) and, to demonstrate that intent, announced a farm loan waiver of up to Rs 2 lakh. He was witty and accommodating, and confident of negotiating the political churn that had brought together the Sena and the Congress, two parties with no ideological affinity. The opposition BJP predicted the three-party “autorickshaw government” (ex-chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’s words) would soon collapse under the weight of its contradictions, but Thackeray proved them wrong too.