Amidst repeated snubs by former ally BJP, the meeting of the estranged Thackeray cousins seems to have energised the Shiv Sena. MNS chief Raj Thackeray met Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray at Shivaji Park where Sena supremo Bal Thackeray's second death anniversary was being observed on Monday.
The meeting, which took place on the backdrop of the intense drubbing faced by MNS in the assembly elections, has set tongues wagging about the possibility of an "understanding" between the two nativist, sons of soil parties. Raj had skipped the first death anniversary of his uncle.
On Tuesday, the Shiv Sena organ 'Saamna' carried a story of the meeting between the cousins on its front page with the headline 'Uddhavji aani Raj smruti sthalawar ekatra: ab ayenge acche din' (Uddhav and Raj come together at the memorial: Good days will come now). The report also noted how "thousands of Shiv Sainiks and MNS cadre" had shouted slogans for the two to join hands.
MNS leaders admit that the party has been nearly wiped out from the electoral map with its strength in the assembly falling from 13 in 2009 to just one this year and in such a scenario they need to explore "understandings" with the Sena.
"They may not come together now, but may join hands before the next assembly polls," said a Shiv Sena source, adding that both Uddhav and Raj need to build bridges with each other at the political level.
"While Uddhav needs Raj to counter the rising BJP and consolidate Maharashtrian voters, Raj, on the other hand, is in doldrums," he added, stating that the MNS may hold the key to Sena's power in the BMC polls due in 2017, if Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP then.
"Much of Raj's political space (among urban, educated youth and the working class) in Nashik, Mumbai, Pune and Thane has been taken over by the BJP," the source pointed out, adding that the Sena would hurt itself by participating in the government after accepting the leader of the opposition's post in the state assembly.
All said and done, speaking to the media in Pune, Raj said he had gone to Shivaji Park to pay his tributes to Balasaheb and urged that no political meaning should be read into his meeting with Uddhav.
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