Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray met his cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray on Wednesday. The meeting took place amid a discussion of an alliance between the two parties.
Both party heads and their leaders met on Raj Thackeray’s residence ‘Shivtirtha’ located in Dadar area of the city. This was the second public meeting between the two cousins in the last two weeks. Uddhav went to Shivatirtha on the occasion of Ganesh festival last month.
Both shared a platform to celebrate their “victory” in Mumbai on 5 July, when the Maharashtra government withdrew its controversial order on three-language formulas for students from class 1 to 5 amid allegations of imposing Hindi in Marathi-dominated state.
In late July, Raj visited Uddhav Thackeray on his residence ‘Matoshree’ in the suburban Bandra to congratulate him on his birthday.
Although Raj left undivided Shiv Sena in 2005 and blamed Uddhav for this, the defeat of his parties in the 2024 assembly elections has inspired rivals to improve relations.
Both parties have given enough indications to form an alliance for the upcoming local body elections, including the elections of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but have not yet announced a formal alliance. If this happens, the BJP will be their main rival.
When asked about the recent meeting between the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief and the MNS president, BJP’s Mumbai unit chief and MLA Amit Satam said on Wednesday that citizens are more concerned about development than family meetings among political leaders.
Satam told reporters, “It is not about who is meeting whom and how their families have relationships, but it is about who rebelled the BDD Chawl in Atal Setu, Costal Road, Worli and surrounding areas and who installed a huge network of CCTV cameras across Mumbai. These are the major issues and Mumbaikar will vote on the same basis.”
He said that people from across the city have supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the last elections and will continue to do further.
He added, “The Central and State Governments have also accelerated the construction of the Navi Mumbai International Airport. Want such pace of civil development that others never got during the 25 -year rule. Just only the meetings among the cousins have no political importance; people are more interested in who will solve their problems.”
BJP MLC Praveen Darekar also did not give much importance to the meeting.
Darekar said, “As a junior political activist, I will be happy to see the two cousins coming together, as there is a history of association with civil dialogues and uniform -minded groups in Maharashtra. But it’s not time to talk about their alliance.”
He wanted to know that if Uddhav Thackeray alliance with Raj Thackeray, then what will be his status in Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). He said, “There is no point in claiming that their alliance will give power to Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS in BMC.”
Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Sharad Pawar -led NCP (SP) are partners in opposition factions MVA.
Amid the ongoing discussion about the Akhil Maharashtra alliance, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS were shocked in the election of Best Employees Cooperative Credit Society Limited last month, when the panel supported by both parties lost all 21 seats.
