Balasaheb Keshav Thackeray (English: Bal Thackeray, born: January 23, 1926; death: November 17, 2012) was a famous politician from the state of Maharashtra, India. He formed a Hindu nationalist party called Shiv Sena.
Bal Thackeray was born in a Marathi family on 23 January 1926 in Pune, the then Bombay Residency. Bal Thackeray’s birth name was Bal Keshav Thackeray. He is also known as Balasaheb Thackeray and Hindu Hriday Samrat. Bal Thackeray is the founder of the Hindu political party ‘Shiv Sena’. His party has a good hold in Maharashtra and due to opposition from outsiders, he got more recognition.[1]
Bal Thackeray started his career as a cartoonist with ‘The Free Press Journal’, an English daily in Mumbai. In 1960, Bal Thackeray left his job as a cartoonist and started his own political weekly newspaper Marmak. Bal Thackeray’s cartoons were also published in ‘Times of India’ every Sunday. His political philosophy is influenced by his father. His father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray was a well-known figure of ‘United Maharashtra Movement’. Bal Thackeray’s father Keshav Sitaram Thackeray contributed significantly to the creation of Maharashtra state on linguistic basis. Through ‘Marmik’, Bal Thackeray campaigned against the growing influence of Gujaratis, Marwaris and South Indians in Mumbai.[1]
In 1966, Bal Thackeray formed the political party ‘Shiv Sena’ to empower the people of Maharashtra over the political and business scene of Mumbai. Bal Thackeray was the founder of Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece Marathi newspaper ‘Saamna’ and Hindi newspaper ‘Dopahar ka Saamna’.
Bal Thackeray’s wife’s name was Meena Thackeray, who died in 1996. He has three sons, Late Bindumadhav, Jaidev and Uddhav Thackeray. His elder son Bindumadhav Thackeray died in a road accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway on 20 April 1996.[1]
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, who was seriously ill for several days, died on November 17, 2012 at the age of 86. Balasaheb Thackeray breathed his last around 3:30 in the afternoon. According to doctors, Thackeray died of a heart attack.