Uddhav sets date with Capital

Buoyant after a series of electoral victories, Shiv Sena Executive President Uddhav Thackeray has planned a high-profile visit to the Capital on September 11 to make his presence felt on the national scene. The initiative marks a major shift by the son from the father’s style of politics. Bal Thackeray was content playing the remote-control from Matoshri in distant Mumbai. On the other hand, Uddhav is pitching in as a more hands-on kind of Sena chief, at a time when coalitions are the order of the day and even small regional parties tend to be important players at the Centre.

The key engagement for Uddhav for the day is a visit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as the leader of a delegation of Sena MPs. Thackeray Sr. would have left this job to someone like former Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi. Not Uddhav. He would rather lead from the front.

To cap it, Uddhav has chosen a crucial issue, the Sachar Commission report, to take a shot at the national politics. The proposed memorandum, according to Sena sources, would highlight the “divisive” nature of the Government move. “We believe it would lead to a second Partition of India,” the sources said. The supposed attempt to ameliorate the lot of poor Muslims would end up as a dangerous move to polarize people on communal lines, they said.

The Sena strategy is to seize upon the issue right away and outmatch even the BJP by reaching out to its old Hindutva constituency through a campaign against the Congress policy of “appeasement of Muslims”.