Mumbai: The row over the BJP-led Maharashtra government’s decision to make Hindi a mandatory third language seems to have united warring first cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray nearly two decades after their bitter fallout. The MNS chief, who allied with the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, said he had no qualms about working with Uddhav Thackeray if the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief was willing.
Raj, once seen as the political heir of his uncle and the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, left the Shiv Sena in 2005 amid a dispute with Uddhav for control of the party. Raj floated the MNS the next year. Reacting to his estranged cousin’s remark, Uddhav said he was also willing to set aside “small quarrels” and unite in the interest of the Marathi community.
However, the Sena (UBT) chief put a condition that he should not “invite home and serve food” to those who act against Maharashtra’s interests – a likely reference to the BJP and its Mahayuti allies. “I am also ready to set aside the small quarrels and come together in the interest of the Marathi community. But there is one condition.
The senior Thackeray reminded the MNS chief of his support for the NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Even in the state, there would have been a government that thinks about the interests of Maharashtra. Back then, you supported them, Uddhav further said.
