Bal Thackeray Must Be Blessing Me’: Devendra Fadnavis’ Jibe At Uddhav, Raj

Choosing to respond with sarcasm after the Thackeray cousins’ ‘Voice of Marathi’ rally on Saturday, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said Bal Thackeray must be showering him with blessings for bringing them together. The BJP leader’s statement was a reference to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s remark at the event that, by bringing the cousins together, Mr Fadnavis had done what Bal Thackeray and many others could not.

Mr Fadnavis did not spare Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) president Uddhav Thackeray either, remarking that his speech at the rally was less about Marathi and more about how the government led by him was toppled after a rebellion in 2022.  “I was told it was supposed to be a ‘vijay’ (victory) rally, but it turned out to be a ‘rudali’ (mourning) speech,” he said. 

The rally – organised to celebrate the Maharashtra government withdrawing orders on the implementation of the three-language policy in the state, which the opposition had termed ‘Hindi imposition’. saw Uddhav and Raj Thackeray sharing a stage at a political event for the first time since they had a falling out in 2005.