Raj revisited: Sena awaits tussle, Uddhav camp jolted

A day after Raj Thackeray said he had his sights set on the Chief Minister’s post, there was shock in the upper echelons of the Shiv Se...

A day after Raj Thackeray said he had his sights set on the Chief Minister’s post, there was shock in the upper echelons of the Shiv Sena, a party unused to such dramatic declarations by anyone except Bal Thackeray himself.

Supporters of executive president Uddhav Thackeray, regarded as the CM- in-waiting, were particularly agitated. But most senior leaders chose to stay silent. While Uddhav himself was not available — he was on a tour of western Maharashtra and Marathwada — his aide Sanjay Nirupam and the other aspirant for the CM’s post, Narayan Rane, declined to comment on Raj’s statements.

‘‘I am a small party worker. It will be wrong on my part to comment on a senior leader of the stature of Raj,’’ Nirupam said. Rane said only the Sena chief could clear the air on the subject.

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Interacting with journalists on Tuesday, Raj had said, ‘‘I have ambitions of becoming the chief minister’’.

Soon after the Sena’s two-day national convention at Aurangabad this year, when Bal Thackeray had handed over the party’s reins to his son, it was assumed that he has succeeded in persuading his nephew to accept Uddhav’s leadership. Raj’s statement on Tuesday, however, indicates fresh tussle on the cards within the Thackeray family.

Senior leaders are in no doubt that at a juncture when the organisation had sought to project his cousin Uddhav as the prospective CM, Raj, by announcing his own candidature, even though for the future, has once again challenged his cousin’s leadership.

	Tiger on CM candidate

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So far, whenever the question has been posed to Uddhav, Narayan Rane and Manohar Joshi, their reply has been the same: ‘‘The new Chief Minister will be decided by Bal Thackeray.’’

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However, Thackeray himself has chosen to cloak the subject in mystery with statements that have been either contradictory or intriguing.

A Shiv Sena MP said it was strange that Raj had chosen to air such views, considering that no serious contender for the post would actually claim that he was in the race.

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