Raj Thackeray

 

Raj Thackeray (Marathi: राज ठाकरे) (born June 14, 1968) is a politician from the Indian state of Maharashtra and the founder and chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (literally, Maharashtra Reconstruction Army) political partyThackeray started his political career with the right wing Shiv Sena party of Maharashtra. He is the nephew of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray.

Once seen as the future leader of Shiv Sena after his uncle Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray had a falling out with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray, son of Bal Thackeray and Shiv Sena’s executive president.

Raj Thackeray resigned from the party in December 2005 after blaming Uddhav Thackeray and his companions for ruining the Shiv Sena. He announced that he would form his own party. He formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in March 2006. In the meanwhile, he extensively toured Maharashtra to garner support for his new party.

Thackeray’s party has maintained a rightist stance like the Shiv Sena but Thackeray has claimed that his party will be more moderate, unlike the hardline Hindutva stand of the Shiv Sena. However, Thackeray is a staunch conservative in his views regarding protection of interests of indigenous Marathi speakers in the increasingly multi-cultural city of Mumbai, an issue that originally facilitated the Shiv Sena’s rise in the 1960s.

In February 2008, a row erupted in Mumbai after Thackeray’s derogatory remarks about the migrant population from the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the city. Later, his party’s activists clashed with activists of the Samajwadi Party, a regional party from Uttar Pradesh. Thackeray also criticized noted film actor Amitabh Bachchan, who is originally from Uttar Pradesh, for “taking more interest in Uttar Pradesh than Maharashtra”, in spite of achieving his fame and fortune in Mumbai. ^[2][3]

Analysts have interpreted these developments as an attempt by Thackeray to move into the limelight, and strike at the Shiv Sena, which was trying to woo north Indian votes