Mumbai: Shiv Sena and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would have had a happy ending to the year 2019. Not only did the Sena president grabbed power, albeit with the crutches of support from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he not only managed to coronate himself as the Chief Minister, Thackeray used this once in a life-time opportunity to make his crown prince, Aditya sit beside him in his Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) royal durbar as a cabinet minister.
What was unofficial for last one month, is now official. Shiv Sena president and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray by making son Aditya Thackeray as his deputy in his own cabinet has sent out clear signals of separation of power as well as who will be the Sena’s eyes and ears, not just in the government, but also in the party as well.
The question however, remains as to whether this power equation lead to clash for supremacy between Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray or the Yuva Sena led by Aditya Thackeray. Or will it be an amalgamation of both to take on the wily Congress and NCP as they chart untested waters of running the administration of the state and engage in political games with its rivals.
While, Uddhav might want to handle the party affairs, it suits him perfectly fine to have his own son act as his eyes and ears in the government. Although both have had experience in ruling civic bodies, they have little or no direct firsthand experience of running a big state like Maharashtra.
The Sena had an experience of running the government in 1995-99, almost 20 years ago. The trusted old experienced lieutenants appear to be grumpy at being sidelined in the new family controlled political power matrix. The danger here is that both might be taken for a walk down the garden path. As stated above, both the father and son have had little or no direct previous experience of governing a state.
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Back then late Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray ‘Remote Controlled’ the government without getting his hands dirty and managed to stay clean as a whistle. That might not be possible for Uddhav and Aditya Thackeray. He may have put to rest all questions over presence of his MLA son at his official meetings, now giving him a legal ticket to attend them. In doing so he has indicated to all who is the number two in the government.
A section of the old guard in the Sena earlier wanted Aditya to step into active politics so that he could keep a check on what party legislators were doing in the legislature and outside. They could have hardly imagined that the father and son duo would sideline them, just like Indira Gandhi had sidelined the Syndicate in the Congress to take full control of the party in the 1960’s.
The 29 year old bachelor has been a self-proclaimed Environmentalist, loves Education, Health and Youth Affairs. His first direct foray into active politics was during the seat sharing talks with Sena’s estranged ally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It is one of the reasons that the BJP leadership feels slighted at by the Sena at having to talk to a political green horn over a complex issue of seat sharing and matters of alliance. The alliance snapped in 2014.
Ever since he was made the Yuva Sena chief and began taking active interest in running of the Sena ruled Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) since 2013 his achievements have been a mixed bag so far.
His brainchild of introducing ‘Virtual Classroom’s’ in BMC run schools in January 2013, though was marveled at for its innovativeness, six years later its tangible results are still awaited to be seen. With the active support of his environmentalist friends he cried halt at the construction work of Metro 3 car shed depot at Aarey Milk Colony in August 2019, a wish, which his father kept after assuming charge as the Chief Minister.
Beyond that his experiments at introducing concepts of Rooftop Restaurants in May 2016 and pitching for Night Life in Mumbai in April 2017 ended in a disaster. At least the Rooftop Restaurant idea went up in flames at a fire between 1Above and Mojo Bristo Pub’s at Kamala Mills compound at Worli in December 2017. It is a different matter that Aditya Thackeray now represents the same Worli assembly constituency.
His attempts to introduce the Artic wildlife to Mumbai in 2016, in the form of Penguins, ended in another disaster with the Penguin chick could not survive in the Mumbai climate and died in September 2018. Although his student wing, the Yuva Sena has called the shots in the Mumbai University, the students outfit has been unable to halt the downslide of country’s once premier educational institution.
Another reason for the “Son Rise” of Aditya Thackeray in the Sena is the concern at being left behind in similar cases of “Son Rise’s” in Congress (Rahul Gandhi), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) (Amit Raj Thackeray), Rohit Pawar (NCP), Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra (Congress), just to name a few and a host of others at the national level.
Secondly, the Sena needs to win back the youth, who form sizeable chunk of the electorate and that which has gravitated between Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sister-brother duo of Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi. Not just them, he has competition from his own cousin brother Amit. As of now neither Aditya or Amit have shown an aggressive intent that the youth find in Modi, Shah, Rahul or Priyanka.
It remains to be seen as to be seen as to how well Aditya uses his new found status, levers of power to win over the youth to the Sena side so crucial as the Sena prepares to take on the BJP and MNS for the crucial January 2022 BMC elections and other political and electoral battles that lie ahead.
