A CHANGE OF IMAGE

These days, Uddhav Thackeray is visible! On December 17, the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) president walked for over 3 km in the morcha organised by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi MVA) over issues like comments against social icons by governor B.S. Koshyari.

- Dhaval Kulkarni

“One of the messages of this morcha is that Uddhav Thackeray is in good health. His participation in this long march has also scotched any rumours about this,” explains a senior Congress leader. Thackeray's aides say that he will also undertake a statewide tour early next year to rally his forces. Similarly, his son and former environment minister Aaditya Thackeray has toured parts of the state. The former CM also attended the winter session of the state legislature at Nagpur and spoke in the legislative council on December 26 about Maharashtra’s border dispute with Karnataka.

Over the last few months, Thackeray has also visited parts of Aurangabad district October), which were affected by unseasonal rains, and held a public meeting at Chikhli in Vidarbha’s Buldhana district November). Thackeray has also been meeting party workers at his residence Matoshri’ or the party headquarters—Shiv Sena Bhavan-—and is inducting leaders from other parties.

This sudden public outreach is aimed at stemming any further damage to the otherwise monolithic organisation and capitalising on any sympathy among the masses after his government was ousted. As chief minister in the MVA regime, Thackeray's lack of accessibility and hands-off approach were seen as reasons for the discontent in the Shiv Sena reaching disruptive levels. This culminated in the midnight coup that toppled his government.

Now, as the Shiv Sena licks its wounds after a mauling by former leader and incumbent chief minister Eknath Shinde and the BJP, Thackeray seems to have hit the ground running. The credit for Thackeray's public activity) goes to Shinde. We must give credit where it is due,” says a Shiv Sena source, speaking in a lighter vein.