'Journey Towards One's Decline': Raj Thackeray's Jibe After Uddhav Quits as Maharashtra CM

A day after Uddhav Thackeray resigned as Maharashtra Chief Minister following a rebellion in the Shiv Sena led by leader Eknath Shinde, Raj Thackeray on Wednesday took a dig at his estranged cousin and said, “therein begins the journey towards one’s decline.”

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief in a tweet said, “When anyone misunderstands one’s good fortune as one’s personal accomplishment; therein begins the journey towards one’s decline.”

Raj Thackeray had reminded him that power is not permanent in a statement earlier. “No one has come with the (‘tamrapat’) copper plate of power. Even you have not, Uddhav Thackeray,” he had said last month when he had asked Uddhav Thackeray not to test his party’s (MNS’s) patience over the issue of loudspeakers.

In 2005, following years of a power struggle between the cousins, Raj Thackeray rebelled against party patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray and formed his own party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.

Uddhav Thackeray resigned after he was accused of losing its hardline Hindutva identity following a tie-up with the NCP and Congress. The rebel legislators led by Shinde have been maintaining that they were forced to go against Thackeray as he kept ignoring their plea to snap ties with the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies despite being told that these constituents were trying to “finish off” the Sena.

The statement came days after it was reported that rebel leader Eknath Shinde had spoken to Raj Thackeray thrice over the phone on the recent political situation. Ray Thackeray has often been at loggerheads with the ruling MVA on issues on Azaan and loudspeakers at mosques, a move supported by the main opposition BJP.

The MNS leader had also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Centre to change the name of Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar and to bring the Uniform Civil Code. While the Maharashtra cabinet announced the decision to rename Aurangabad to Sambhajinagar, the decision came after Thackeray announced his decision to step down as Chief Minster on a Facebook Live instead of facing a trust vote in the Maharashtra Assembly on Thursday, for which he did not have the numbers.

Meanwhile, Eknath Shinde, who arrived in Mumbai from Goa on Thursday afternoon, is discussing the formation of the next government in Maharashtra with senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis at the latter’s official residence in south Mumbai. They will submit the letters of the supporting MLAs to Governor B S Koshyari to stake a claim for government formation, BJP leaders said. The BJP has said that it has the support of a total of 170 MLAs, including those from Shinde’s rebel faction.

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