Raj will listen to me: Bal Thackerey

Mumbai: In an effort to diffuse the ongoing crisis in the Sena camp, Shiv Sena MLAs met party leader Raj Thackerey on Wednesday morning.

The agenda of the meeting was to convince Raj to withdraw his resignation as the party's Youth leader.

The Shiv Sena Opposition Leader in Maharashtra, Ramdas Kadam, met Raj Thackerey on Wednesday in an attempt to resolve the present crisis in the party following his differences with executive president of the Shiv Sena and cousin Uddhav Thackerey.

Kadam, accompanied by party legislators, went to Raj's residence at Dadar in central Mumbai in order to reconcile between the warring cousins.

On Tuesday evening, Sena MLAs met Bal Thackerey and Uddhav Thackerey at their residence, 'Matoshree', in Bandra to discuss the crisis in the party ranks.

Bal Thackerey had told the MLAs then, "Raj will come when I call him. He is adamant but he will listen only to me."

After the meeting, the MLAs went to Raj's house, carrying a message from Bal Thackerey but Raj was not home.

The war of the Thackereys

Shiv Sena leader Raj Thackeray had resigned on Sunday as chief of the party's student wing questioning Sena executive president and cousin Uddhav's leadership.

Raj had said that he was not aiming for executive presidentship of the party but his move was to protest his being pushed into a corner by the coterie surrounding Uddhav.

Raj had also accused people close to Bal Thackeray of 'poisoning' the Sena supremo against him.

On Wednesday in a rally in Pune, Raj told his supporters that he has been suffering for the last ten years due to the wrong decisions taken by many Sena leaders.

"I am not fighting with Bal Thackerey. My fight is with people around him. I will declare my decision within next three days."

When the Raj Thackerey's hostility had come out in the open, Bal Thackerey instead of privately reprimanding him, had written an editorial in the party mouthpiece Saamna criticising his nephew.

He said that should have displayed this aggression during the Sena's campaign in the Malvan Assembly by-election.

Narayan Rane who had quit the Shiv Sena and joined the Congress just a few weeks ago had won the by-elections with a thumping majority.

Bal Thackeray had also said that A Shiv Sainik should learn to live under the party's shadow and should not attempt to dominate or hijack it.

He also declared that the Shiv Sena was "not anybody's private property" and said that, "those who live in the shadow of the Himalayas should not think that they are bigger than the mountain."