Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, along with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar MP Supriya Sule, party MLA Jitendra Awhad during a joint rally after the Maharashtra government scrapped two GRs to introduce Hindi as the third language. (Source: ANI Video Grab)
Even as Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray held a ”victory rally” over the cancelled Government Resolution making Hindi compulsory from Class One, the Congress stayed away but denied it boycotted the event. The Uddhav Sena said it had invited the Congress for the rally but does not hold a grudge against the party.
The Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP) however made its presence felt with two of its top leaders attending the event and even gracing the stage. Supriya Sule, Baramati MP and MLA Jitendra Awhad were present. In fact, Supriya Sule was seen on stage bringing Aaditya and Amit Thackeray together for a photo op. Sule and Awhad were invited on stage by Raj Thackeray at the end of the event. Except for this, only Uddhav and Raj occupied the stage.
”We did not boycott the rally… Since it was a victory rally for Marathas, we supported it. Congress has been at the forefront of protecting the interest of Marathas. When Congress ruled the state, it ensured progress of Maharashtra and Marathas,” said state Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe.
Asked whether the Congress had a problem with Raj Thackeray, Londhe said, “No, we have no problem with the MNS chief… They had invited Marathas from all parties.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut denied that the Sena was upset as the top leaders from Maharashtra Congress stayed away their rally. “We had invited the MPCC chief for the event but we learnt that he was in Delhi and therefore could not make it. Though top leaders of Congress were not present, some Congress leaders did attend the rally…We are not upset with the Congress leadership,” Raut told The Indian Express after the rally.
Asked whether the Sena and MNS tie up will have any impact on Maha Vikas Aghadi, Raut said, “I don’t think so… MVA and INDIA bloc are intact. But I don’t know what is going to happen in the future.”
Raut said the people of Maharashtra have brought the two leaders together. “Now discussion has begun on whether the two will contest elections together. The two brother will take a call… The elections which will be held in the near future are of the local self-government bodies. These elections are fought differently,” he said.
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On Saturday, Raut said It wasn’t just the Thackeray brothers but Thackeray families that have come together. ”Now they will come together in the political terrain as well,” he said.
Raut said they don’t recognise the party led by Eknath Shinde. “They are surviving on Amit Shah and BJP. No matter how much he drives, he will not succeed in dividing us…. Maharashtra’s Muslims are with us,” he said.
After the rally, Raj Thackeray expressed regret, saying that during his speech he forgot to mention those who stood behind Marathas in their fight against making Hindi compulsory. In a social media post, Raj said, “The State Government had bowed before the Marathas who fought against the imposition of Hindi. Today, a victory rally in this regard was held. During my speech, I forgot to take certain names… Marathi television channels, Marathi newspapers and those organisations which work for Marathi, besides several pressure groups, all stood by us during our fight. I want to thank each one of them. This unity for Marathi self-respect should remain in tact.”
Reacting to the rally, RPI (A) leader Ramdas Athawale said, “No one votes for MNS chief Raj Thackeray while Eknath Shinde has stunned Uddhav Thackeray during the elections. I welcome both the brothers coming together but this is going to benefit the BJP-led Mahayuti… I have also urged Prakash Ambedkar to join hands but he has given a negative reply.”
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives.
Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees.
During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa.
Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.
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