Mumbai: The gloves were off within the Shiv Sena’s rank and file in 2022 when the party split into two factions, with several MLAs lamenting that it was no longer Bal Thackeray’s belligerent outfit. ‘Too soft, too moderate’ was the message.
Other than Bal Thackeray’s successor Uddhav Thackeray, the aggrieved MLAs largely blamed Thackeray scion Aaditya for this “transformation” of the Shiv Sena.
As the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), or the Shiv Sena (UBT), gears up for its most important election that’s linked to its future, the outfit is back to its original agendas—nativism and a battle for Mumbai.
At Matoshree, the Thackeray residence in Mumbai’s Bandra East, 34-year-old Aaditya insists that the party under his father had never changed. It is just more evolved, he says.
“Uddhav ji always says as a father and party president, whenever he is guiding us, that when you are creating a statue you need a hammer and chisel. But once you have created that statue and if you keep using the hammer and chisel, the statue is going to break. After that all you need to do is keep cleaning it and polishing it and preserving it as much as possible,” Aaditya Thackeray tells ThePrint in an interview.
He asserts that under Brand ‘Uddhav and Aaditya Thackeray’, the party is still the same and even the issues that they have been raising are still the same. However, the approach towards tackling the issues has changed.
Far from aggression on the street, the Shiv Sena (UBT) is just a pale shadow of its once feared image that brings back the picture of bandhs and hooliganism.
“Aggression, moderation—all depend on the kind of issues that the party takes. Even today, in terms of ‘Bhoomiputras’ (sons of the soil), or the rights of locals, it is very close to our hearts. Nativist politics is important. If we look around, that is happening across the world. Everyone is looking inwards,” he insists.
The party has taken a hard stance in its seat-sharing negotiations with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), a strong trait of the undivided Shiv Sena under the late party patriarch Bal Thackeray. The opposition MVA comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Ninety-six seats were allotted to the Shiv Sena UBT in the poll-bound Maharashtra, which will vote on 20 November. The results will be announced on 23 November.
Nativist politics & Mumbai spirit
At the time of the Sena’s formation in 1966, Bal Thackeray raised the issue of how people from the South were snatching jobs away from Marathis. Six years on, the feisty leader and the Shiv Sainiks had stormed into the Air India building at Mumbai’s Nariman Point, demanding jobs for locals and threatening the general manager.
Now, his son and grandson are back to the same nativist politics pursued in those years. In the past two and a half years, since the MVA government was toppled, the Shiv Sena UBT has been again raking up the issue of ‘sons of the soil’.
Many industries went to Gujarat, Aaditya alleges, and adds that the jobs were being snatched away from locals.
Time and again, he refers to how mega projects like Vedanta Foxconn, Tata Airbus, went to the neighbouring state. Many industries from Chakan, an automobile and manufacturing hub, also shut their operations, he adds.
“There is a forced exodus of industries from our state to Gujarat.”
Dharavi redevelopment also finds place in Aaditya’s scheme of action plans.
“(Businessman Gautam) Adani is getting land free of cost… Though we are not against any particular industrialist, we are against the loot of Mumbai. Nobody should get anything beyond the tender,” he tells ThePrint.
Uddhav Thackeray, on the other hand, at the annual Dussehra rally, had said that if the Aghadi came to power, it would scrap the tender given to Adani.
Hard stance
When the date of the state elections were declared and just after the Lok Sabha, the Shiv Sena (UBT) wanted a CM face to be declared. At several joint platforms of the MVA, Uddhav had urged the Aghadi allies to declare its CM face but the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar) opposed it.
According to Aaditya Thackeray, the surveys have been pointing out that his father had been a popular CM and continues to remain even after the split in Shiv Sena.
“We did not want to declare but it would have been better because almost every survey is showing that if there is one person that is most acceptable to the people with a huge majority then it is Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray even two and half years after the government was toppled,” Aaditya says.
“So, clearly it means that he resonates with the people, be it farm loan waiver, or with Covid work, or urban development work that was happening, or the support he gave to the people.”
This is not a personal ambition and there is no squabble for the post, he clarifies. “If our allies have a better face, we can go with it. This fight is about Maharashtra.”
‘Job creation is a must’
Like his grandfather, Aaditya is also all for focusing on the ‘manoos’ (people) of Maharashtra when it comes to jobs.
“Today, Maharashtra is pulled into a downward spiral by (Chief Minister) Eknath Shinde and the BJP. What we are looking at is a lack of jobs. The biggest crisis in our state right now apart from agrarian issues and law and order, is jobs. In rural areas, people are turning towards MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) or trying for government jobs,” he says.
“But there are not many. People have to protest for government exams to take place on time. In the private sector, there is an exodus of industries to other states. That is the biggest issue.”
The Worli MLA further asserts that his father is the first chief minister who was born and brought up in Mumbai. “For us, Mumbai is ‘janmabhoomi’ (birthplace) and ‘karmabhoomi’ (workplace). Mumbai was not easily given to Maharashtra. We had to fight for it.”
The BJP and Eknath Shinde think of Mumbai as “a hen that lays golden eggs”, the former state minister alleges.
Under the MVA government, Aaditya claims, many industrialists will arrive and invest in Maharashtra. The MoUs that get signed would be converted to work on ground, he adds.
“So for us, it is important to focus on both rural and urban development. The focus will also be on education and healthcare. But along with that for me, the biggest priority is jobs, jobs, jobs. Job creation is a must,” he asserts.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Sparks fly in Mumbai as Shinde, Uddhav spar over BJP, Hindutva & Adani during Dussehra bout