Shiv Sena's most famous rebel -- perhaps even more than Eknath Shinde -- Raj Thackeray today tweeted in what could be seen as a dig at cousin Uddhav Thackeray, the party boss who had to quit as Chief Minister of Maharashtra last night after a mutiny.
"When anyone misunderstands one's good fortune as one's personal accomplishment," read the tweet, "therein begins the journey towards one's decline."
Raj Thackeray led a rebellion within the Sena and formed his own party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), almost two decades ago. Though, unlike Eknath Shinde who will now be chief minister backed by the BJP, Raj Thackeray has had limited political success so far.
Raj Thackeray's father, Shrikant Thackeray, was a younger brother of Shiv Sena founder and Uddhav Thackeray's father, Bal Thackeray.
Known for fiery speeches and aggressive rhetoric, Raj Thackeray was seen as a natural heir to his uncle, as opposed to a mild-mannered Uddhav Thackeray.
But he was incensed when Uddhav Thackeray, who is eight years older, was all but chosen as the successor in the mid-2000s. He left the family-led party at the end of 2005.
In the mutiny that unseated Uddhav Thackeray, he remained mostly quiet. He was in hospital for a surgery around the same time. This tweet, however, can be seen as an indication that he has far from reconciled with his embattled cousin.
In his recent stances, Raj Thackeray has positioned himself as a hardline Hindutva leader, continuing to lay claim to Bal Thackeray's legacy. The legacy is something that rebels led by Eknath Shinde too have claimed as theirs.
Uddhav Thackeray, who had allied with NCP and Congress to form the government in 2019, also sought to burnish his Hindutva-Maratha credentials in what turned out to be the last decision of his cabinet -- renaming Aurangabad as Sambhajinagar and Osmanabad as Dharashiv.
Meanwhile, Uddhav Thackeray's son Aaditya Thackeray today spoke to NDTV about the Shinde camp's rebellion, saying that his father and he knew there were "people with monster ambitions" but that it was "impossible to imagine" that people could "do this to their own party".
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