Trailing Aaditya Thackeray, the first from the family to contest elections

Ahead of the Maharashtra assembly polls next week, Ranjita Ganesan looks at what has prompted Shiv Sena scion Aaditya Thackeray to become the first of the Thackerays to contest elections

One thing that convinced him the moment was ripe to contest the upcoming Maharashtra state election, jokes 29-year-old Aaditya Thackeray, was that during visits to local schools, children were addressing him as “Uncle”. His party’s new slogan, “Heech tee vel (It is time)”, supposedly a reference to the dawn of a new Maharashtra, also signifies Thackeray’s own coming of age in politics. The former chief of Yuva Sena, who was elected a Shiv Sena leader last year, is contesting the Legislative Assembly election from Mumbai’s Worli constituency.

It is a first for the Thackeray family; before this, no member has ever