New book to tell story of estranged Thackeray cousins

From being brother-in-arms to having a bitter fall out over inheriting the Shiv Sena's mantle, the lives of estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray is the subject of a new book.

"The Cousins Thackeray: Uddhav, Raj and the Shadow of their Senas" by journalist-author Dhaval Kulkarni, will evaluate the political careers of Shiv Sena president Uddhav and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj, while diving deep into the history of the Thackeray dynasty.

"It is the first political biography of the Thackeray cousins. The book is a deep-dive narrative into the history of the Thackeray family, life and times of their grandfather, social reformer-author Prabodhankar Thackeray, and the childhood and political careers of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray.

"At a macro level, I have tried to analyse the reasons for such nativist movements striking a chord in the sons-of-the-soil, whose concerns they claim to articulate," said Kulkarni.

Raj, an abrasive, ?re-breathing demagogue, who was seen as his uncle's political heir whose behavioural traits he cultivated; Uddhav, an introvert, is at his best when plotting strategies on the drawing board rather than the rough-and-tumble of street-corner politics that his party is known for in India's ?nancial capital.

So, while the elder cousin (Uddhav) has managed to keep his ?ock together and cemented his position as his late father Bal Thackeray's political heir, Raj, one of the most popular crowd-pullers in Maharashtra, is still itching for an electoral comeback.

The MNS came into existence on March 9, 2006, following Raj's resignation from his uncle's party in January 2006. The party reached its zenith in the 2009 assembly elections when it won 13 out of total 288 seats, but a sore debacle soon followed in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, where it won no seats.

The book, besides looking at the Thackeray cousins who play an integral role in the politics of India, Maharashtra and Mumbai, also examines questions about "identity politics, and the social, cultural and economic matrix that catalysed the formation of the Shiv Sena and the MNS from it".

"I wanted to write about how the Marathi manoos and the working class in Mumbai and the larger metropolitan region, has been pushed to the margins and beyond in the fast changing social, economic and cultural landscape, which is something that the critics of these movements gloss over," the author added.