Mumbai:
For four years, seven months and 16 days after Raj Thackeray parted ways with the Shiv Sena chief to form his own party on March 9, 2006, he made sure he never uttered a word against uncle Bal Thackeray.
He maintained restraint despite being lampooned by the estranged kin more often than not. But the vow of silence was broken at a rally in Dombivli on Monday, and the nephew's words, mannerisms and body language all said in unison: Enough!
At the rally, it was clear that MNS chief Raj Thackeray was in a mood to attack his mentor, and a get a little personal, too.
"Once it is 8.30 pm, we know what happens," Thackeray said, gesturing with his hands to suggest alcohol and imitating a drunken stupor. "Instead of going on digging the past and flogging the dead, he [Bal Thackeray] should think why people are voting for the MNS, and not his party," he said, as the crowd at the rally, organised as part of his Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation poll campaign, broke into laughter.
At the Sena's Dussehra rally on October 17, the senior Thackeray had said it was Raj who named Uddhav as executive president, and not him.
Rubbishing the statement, Raj said, with an aim to embarrass Sena: "I was not even authorised to select the block president in the party. Choosing an executive president was never possible. Balasaheb wanted Uddhav to become executive president. But he felt I would become an obstacle. After all the Shiv Sena is his party.
"Realising his predicament, I asked him whether I should announce Uddhav's nomination. But I never selected him. How can you [Bal Thackeray] say you did not know about this decision. Nothing happens without your permission in the Shiv Sena."
Raj knew his words were going to heat up the rivalry between the two parties. But that did not deter him from being humorous. "Just for the sake of debate, let's accept I made Uddhav executive president. Tell me if my decision was wrong. If I was right, why are you attacking me? If I was wrong then why is he [Uddhav] still there?"
Raj said people "wrongly" accuse him of copying Balasaheb's style. "Isn't it true that what he [Bal Thackeray] has been saying for so long has already been said by my grandfather [Prabodhankar Thackeray] and Acharya Atre. So, does that mean he is copying these great personalities? Nobody has ever attacked him on these grounds; then why I am being singled out for this honour? I have grown under his shadow, and naturally I have his influence. But when I was with him, I was never told that I was copying him."
Copyright restricted. Under license from
www.3dsyndication.com