Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said his son taking a plunge into electoral politics does not mean he is retiring, and expressed confidence that a Sena worker would one day become the state’s chief minister. In an interview to Sena mouthpiece Saamana, he claimed his party put a check on the ‘Modi wave’ in the 2014 state Assembly polls, but maintained there was no point in a discussion now on why they parted ways with the BJP at that time.
This time, the Sena is contesting on 124 out of the total 288 constituencies in alliance with the BJP, which has nominated candidates for 150 seats. Rest of the seats will be allotted to smaller allies from the BJP’s quota. “One day, a Shiv Sainik would become the chief minister of Maharashtra, it is a promise I made to my father and Sena founder late Balasaheb,” Uddhav Thackeray said in the interview, a part of which was released on Monday.
The Sena chief’s son Aaditya Thackeray is entering electoral politics from Worli constituency in Mumbai, and the October 21 state polls are being seen as a litmus test for the party, whether it can bank on the young leader’s popularity to win public mandate. “Aaditya contesting the Assembly election does not necessarily mean I am retiring from active politics. I am very much around,” he said.
“I am not going to do farming,” he said sarcastically, in an apparent reference to NCP leader Ajit Pawar who recently resigned as an MLA and advised his son to prefer farming or business over politics. He also claimed that in 2014, when the Sena and BJP snapped ties ahead of the Assembly polls, his party put a check on the ‘Modi wave’ which had swept the country.
“There is no point in discussing the reasons behind the BJP and Sena contesting (the 2014 polls) separately. It was a war. There was a ‘wave’ at the national level, but we put a check on it in Maharashtra,” he said. “Despite being in power, we have always raised voice for the cause of the common man,” he added.
