Joshi out of Sena leader’s favour

Till a few months ago senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi was the blue-eyed person of the Thackerays — whether it was Balasaheb, Uddhav or even Raj. But Joshi’s habit of talking to media about “certain issues” did not go too well with Uddhav who has deputed Subhash Desai for the seat sharing talks with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Suresh Jain, who returned to Sena after a brief honeymoon with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), is assisting Desai. Both Joshi and Desai are Sena’s official spokespersons.
Joshi was the one who was quoted by a news channel, saying, “I will mediate between Uddhav and Raj to bring them together.” Uddhav sought clarification from Joshi on this who asserted that he was misquoted. But Uddhav has since avoided meeting the senior leader.

“Sir (as Joshi is known in Sena) has a superb skill of handling Sena’s political affairs. But Uddhavji is under the impression that he has some links with his political rival — Raj. This went against the veteran leader,” said a source in Sena.

The source said there are a couple of reasons for Uddhav to believe that Joshi might have some links with Raj. “Joshi’s son Unmesh is Raj’s business partner. Raj had praised that Manohar Joshi was his favourite chief minister,” he said.