Ganpati diplomacy: Thackeray cousins weigh truce as BJP reshapes politics

Maharashtra is now a cauldron of power politics, and both Raj and Uddhav are realising they face a common existential enemy - the BJP

 

Ganesh Chaturthi is a traditional occasion for Ganpati diplomacy in Maharashtra. It is a time for estrangements to be buried, for differences to be resolved. And so it was with the Thackeray family when Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) chief Uddhav Thackeray, with his family, visited Shivatirth, his cousin Raj’s residence, for a Ganpati puja after nearly 20 years. Raj had walked out of the family bosom in 2006, after Bal Thackeray anointed his son Uddhav his successor. Raj formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the political riposte to personal heartbreak. While the politics might have