With a big question mark looming over the future of the Shiv Sena since the passing away of its founder Bal Thackeray, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray has announced that he will not take over his father’s position as the party’s supremo.
Though Mr. Uddhav Thackeray has formally declined to accept the mantle of supremo, the party vested in him all the decision-making powers that rested with his father, at a meeting at the Thackeray residence ‘Matoshree’ on Saturday.
According to an interview in the party’s mouthpiece Saamnaa , the Sena’s future direction would be on the principles laid down by Bal Thackeray, pivoted mainly on the ethnocentric planks of securing more rights for the ‘sons of the soil’ and fighting to uphold Marathi pride.
“It would also uphold the Hindutva ideology and battle against the influx of Bangladeshi migrants and Islamic fundamentalism,” said Mr. Thackeray.
“There will not be another Sena ‘Pramukh’. That post will always belong [to] my father,” Mr. Thackeray said in the interview. He said titles like ‘Hinduhriday Samrat’ suited only Bal Thackeray’s personality.
Mr. Thackeray said he wished to keep a distance from the controversy currently raging over a proposed memorial to his father at Dadar’s Shivaji Park, stating that the controversy was “entirely unwarranted”: “Unwarranted is a big word in this case… there is no need for a controversy at a time like this.”
As part of the party’s electoral strategy, Mr. Thackeray is to undertake an extensive tour of Maharashtra from January-February next year.
