India News --- The Shiv Sena

Sena boss & nephew in war of words

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, The Telegraph Calcutta. ==============================================================================

Mumbai, Oct. 26: Bal Thackeray has warned estranged nephew Raj that he could face a backlash for claiming at a civic poll rally last night that the Shiv Sena chief “wanted” to hand over the party reins to son Uddhav. “This is unexpected…. He must keep in mind that this will spark off a wave of anger among Shiv Sainiks,” Thackeray, who had claimed at a Dussehra rally that it was Raj who nominated and endorsed Uddhav for Sena executive president, said in a signed statement today. “If others criticise me, I can understand. But I never dreamed that my family inheritor, a boy who grew up in Matoshree’s shadow, who played on my lap, whom I would show aeroplanes in the night from Matoshree terrace, and whom Maa fed with her own hands would bark back at me.” The war of words came in the run-up to the elections for the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation, now held by the Sena-BJP, due on October 31. The poll will see a triangular fight between the Sena-BJP, the Congress-NCP and Raj’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and is being considered a litmus test for the 2012 Mumbai civic elections. Without naming Raj, Thackeray’s statement questioned how he could refer to Uddhav’s appointment as “dynastic” politics when the MNS chief himself owed his political career and stature to his surname. “This spoilt brat… conveniently forgets that he is also a part of the dynastic politics if it can be called that… this brat is now asking me questions.… But I will present the videotape of the Shiv Sena conclave in Mahabaleshwar to people in Dombivli, Kalyan and Kolhapur. Let them decide if they want to stand on the side of the truth or the untruth,” Thackeray said. The reference was to the 2002 conclave where Uddhav was anointed Sena executive president, which began the process of Raj’s alleged sidelining and eventual resignation in December 2005. The Kolhapur civic elections are also on October 31. (the telegaph calcutta) =================================================