Raj Thackeray: Making a ‘right turn’ to stay afloat

The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief may be a late entrant to the ever-growing Hindutva club, but he is making up for it by making the most noise in his home state

“The other day I heard the chief minister saying, ‘Our Hindutva is real Hindutva, their Hindutva is fake Hindutva’. What is this?… real Hindutva and fake Hindutva…is this washing powder? How is his shirt whiter than mine?” Raj Thackeray bristled at a recent rally in Pune, targeting Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

On the other hand, “we have delivered on Hindutva”, Raj boasted and pointed out his success at curtailing the use of loudspeakers in mosques for ‘azaan’ in Mumbai.

The 53-year-old chief of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) may be a late entrant to the ever-growing Hindutva club, but he is making up for it by making the most noise in his home state of Maharashtra.

The MNS chief’s well-publicised interventions on the loudspeaker issue, Hanuman Chalisa, Uniform Civil Code, demanding Aurangabad be renamed as Sambhajinagar and seeking a law on population control are often on the Sangh Parivar’s menu. They are now his causes, too.

Battling for political survival with just 1 seat in the Assembly, Raj has hedged his bets on Hindutva to lift his prospects that are looking dim.

While his estranged cousin is currently holding the top executive post in Maharashtra, Raj has nothing much to show for himself even after founding his party in 2006 amid much hype.

The script didn’t go the way he wanted to.

Born in 1969 to Shrikant Thackeray and Kunda Thackeray, Raj graduated from Sir JJ School of Applied Art in Mumbai and followed in the footsteps of his uncle Bal Thackeray by taking up cartooning.

He joined ‘Marmik’ as a cartoonist and worked under his uncle who was then the editor of the magazine.

But politics was always on the cards once Balasaheb founded the Shiv Sena. Married to Sharmila Wagh, daughter of well-known photographer and theatre personality Mohan Wagh, Raj was said to be the more natural leader and a better communicator than the staid Uddhav. But Balasaheb went with his son to lead the party.

Raj proposed Uddhav’s name for the Shiv Sena presidentship in 2003 at the Mahabaleshwar conclave, but underneath he was seething.

He eventually parted ways in 2005 and launched his own party, the MNS, the next year hoping to prove Balasaheb wrong.

Like his firebrand uncle, Raj began as a ‘Marathi manoos’ enthusiast, taking up anti-North Indian agitations and issuing threats to get things done. It was ironic for a man who has read Mahatma Gandhi.

In 2008, he was booked for inciting violence after several migrants were attacked in Mumbai, Pune and Nashik.

At various times, Raj took on Bollywood, refusing to allow the screening of movies that featured Pakistani actors. Shah Rukh Khan was one of the high-profile names to feel the MNS heat after his movie ‘Raees’ featured Mahira Khan.

Through these brazen acts, Raj tried to outdo Uddhav and claim the space of the Sena.

Politically, the charismatic MNS chief enjoyed a bit of success at the start.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, though the MNS did not win any seats, it damaged the prospects of the Sena-BJP saffron alliance in Mumbai; and in the Assembly polls that year, the party won 11 of the 288 seats and snatched Sena and BJP votes in urban pockets.

Things went downhill from there. In 2014, the MNS could not win a single seat in the Lok Sabha polls and managed just one seat in the Assembly.

The MNS didn’t contest the 2019 LS polls but Raj addressed a dozen rallies targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 2019 Assembly polls presented another reality check as the MNS mustered just one seat.

Raj had to watch from the sidelines as Uddhav cobbled up an unlikely alliance with the NCP and the Congress and moved into the hot seat.

That explains his subsequent predicament and turn to Hindutva at an event to mark the anniversary of Balasaheb in 2019, where he also launched his son, Amit, into politics.

Though the pandemic stonewalled his plans, he is aggressively pursuing the Hindutva agenda and even praised Modi over the Ram temple, a leader he had slammed earlier.

“Raj has been facing challenges since the beginning,” said Mumbai-based political observer Prakash Akolkar. The MNS did well in one Vidhan Sabha poll but Raj faced setbacks in the 2014 and 2019 polls and “problems from the Enforcement Directorate”, he said.

“In 2019, when he rebranded and adopted Hindutva, the lockdown started. And now that he has made a bid to revive the party, he is facing a major health issue and also politically trapped,” said Akolkar.

Indeed, Raj will undergo hip bone surgery and take a break from his schedule. It would be a good time to catch up on his first love, cartooning.