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Sanjay Raut announced Uddhav and Raj Thackeray will unite for upcoming Mumbai civic polls, aiming to strengthen Marathi identity and challenge the BJP-led government.
Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray’s July 5 rally raised alliance hopes. (PTI Photo)
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut said that the civic polls in Mumbai and other key cities will see cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray — once not on amicable terms — joining forces in an alliance.
“The Thackeray brothers (Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray) will contest the municipal corporation elections in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Kalyan-Dombivali together and win. The strength of Raj and Uddhav Thackeray is the strength of the unity of the Marathi-speakers. No power can break the iron fist of `Marathi manus’ now,” Raut told reporters.
Civic polls are scheduled in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Navi Mumbai, Ulhasnagar, Bhiwandi-Nizampur, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, and Panvel, as well as in other cities such as Nashik. Raut said Uddhav and Raj Thackeray have the support of the Marathi-speaking population, adding that discussions are on between Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leaders on the way forward.
Maharashtra minister and BJP leader Girish Mahajan said that in a democracy, people are free to part ways or come together. “They should win the elections in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik first, and then talk any further,” he said.
Bharat Gogavale, a leader of the Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, said the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP, Shinde Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP, will win all civic polls.
Two decades after Raj Thackeray left the Shiv Sena, speculation about a Raj-Uddhav reunion began in April amid growing debates over Marathi identity and the perceived “imposition” of Hindi in Maharashtra. The fight for language also likely poses a political opportunity for the fledgling Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, smarting from the 15 per cent vote share it garnered in the Assembly elections last year, as the Mahayuti marched to a comfortable victory. The MNS ended with a blank slate.
The civic polls, especially in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) which the Uddhav Sena considers its citadel, are thus a matter of prestige for the Shiv Sena (UBT). The state government’s flip-flop on the three-language policy and the introduction of Hindi as a third language proved a galvanising force for the parties led by the cousins.
Earlier this month, to celebrate the rollback of the Hindi language GRs (resolutions) by the BJP-led government and in the run-up to these municipal elections, the brothers had already shared the stage at a victory rally in Mumbai. “We have come together to stay together. We will together capture power in the Mumbai civic body and Maharashtra,” Uddhav Thackeray said, evoking loud cheers from the crowd in the packed NSCI Dome in Worli.
Raj Thackeray alleged that following the language controversy, the government’s next political strategy would be to create divisions based on caste, accusing the BJP of employing a “divide and rule” tactic.
“Mumbai was ours, right? We fought and got it. We have to expose the BJP’s ‘one nation, one election’ idea. Slowly, they want to make everything one. Hindu and Hindustan, we agree, but we won’t allow Hindi. We made Marathi compulsory, we had to do it,” Uddhav Thackeray had added.
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