Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has said the coming together of estranged cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray was "good for democracy", but also sent a strong message that people support those who work for their welfare.
In a video interview to PTI, Shinde remarked that Uddhav Thackeray had once dismissed his cousin Raj, who made a dramatic exit from the Shiv Sena in 2005 after being sidelined, and it was ironic for the two to reunite.
"It would be incorrect to say that the Thackeray cousins had separated. Raj was expelled from the Shiv Sena. The same people who had questioned his (Raj's) influence are now thinking of joining hands again. It is a good thing. In an electoral democracy, anyone can join hands with anybody," Shinde said.
He said anyone can go anywhere, it is their personal choice, but people support those who work for them and think about their welfare.
"People recognise the work and not the 'name'. People have decided who works for them and who sits at home. People make those people sit at home who like to sit at home," Shinde said in an apparent reference to Uddhav Thackeray.
Shinde toppled Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's Maha Vikas Aghadi government of Shiv Sena-Congress-NCP, contending that Thackeray had abandoned the principles of Hindutva espoused by Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray.
He walked out with more than two-thirds of Sena MLAs and MPs in June 2022 and later earned the tag of 'real' Shiv Sena from the Election Commission.
The Thackeray cousins shared the stage in Mumbai last month for a "victory rally" after the Maharashtra government rolled back its controversial three-language policy that made learning Hindi mandatory in primary schools.
The coming together of the Thackeray cousins is keenly watched after the shock defeat of Shiv Sena-UBT in the Maharashtra Assembly elections last year as the party managed to win only 20 seats of the 100 it had contested as part of an alliance with the Congress and NCP-SP. -- PTI
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