Mumbai, November 27
Mr Bal Thackeray’s nephew Raj Thackeray today plunged the Shiv Sena into deeper crisis after he announced his resignation from all posts in the party.
Speaking to reporters outside his residence, Mr Raj Thackeray reiterated that he would continue to be an ordinary member of the party and had no plans to join another.
In an emotionally charged speech to the media, Mr Raj Thackeray said he was quitting the party founded by his uncle because “it had passed into the hands of middlemen”. Mr Raj Thackeray, however, insisted that Mr Bal Thackeray was his God. “My head will continue to bow in front of Balasaheb,” he said. “The Shiv Sena is in my blood and I will continue to breath its culture,” he added.
After Mr Raj Thackeray made a veiled attack on his cousin and Mr Bal Thackeray’s son Uddhav for sidelining him from the party, activists gathered at the venue, went on a rampage and stoned the cars of a former Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Manohar Joshi, and Mr Sanjay Raut, editor of party mouthpiece Saamna. Both leaders are said to be close to Mr Uddhav Thackeray. The police was then called in to disperse the mob.
Mr Raj Thackeray told reporters that he had put up with humiliation for more than 10 years and “a few clerks” close to the party supremo were poisoning Mr Bal Thackeray’s mind against him. Without naming his opponents in the Shiv Sena, Mr Raj Thackeray dared them to come out in the open and challenge him.
Mr Raj Thackeray is the son of Mr Bal Thackeray’s estranged brother Srikanth. At an early age he moved into his uncle’s residence. A spitting image of the younger Bal Thackeray, Mr Raj Thackeray affects his uncle’s mannerisms and is also an accomplished cartoonist. However, his ambitions received a major setback when his uncle chose to appoint Mr Uddhav Thackeray as his heir and appointed him the executive president of the Shiv Sena.
After the Shiv Sena’s humiliating defeat at the Malvan by-election earlier this month, Mr Raj Thackeray has been egged on by his supporters to strike out his own political future.
