It barely felt like a political event.
Mumbai’s former Mayor was quietly weeping, some senior political leaders were dancing the fugdi, an ally walked on to the stage and stuffed other leaders’ faces with sweets, and the on-stage entry of the two speakers felt like a music concert with lights switched off, flash lights on, accompanied by loud music and strobe lights.
It was designed to be a celebration. On the stage were no party flags, no party names. Just two words: Awaaz Marathicha, The Voice of Marathis.
And yet, the event, fittingly held at Mumbai’s go-to concert venue, the National Sports Complex of India (NSCI), carried profound political implications: the Thackeray cousins, Uddhav and Raj, warring for two decades, buried their differences and shared the stage, in a highly-choreographed event on Saturday.
It took two decades, crushing electoral blows, a risk of political irrelevance for both of them to come together, after having exchanged stinging barbs and jeers for years.
But behind the emotional scenes around the two cousins’ reunion is a tactical decision: to invoke Marathi asmita (self-respect) strategically and push back against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Hindutva-led mobilisation.
'It is The Perfect Formula, At Least in Theory'
For both cousins, this is a return to the old: the Shiv Sena was founded nearly six decades ago on the plank of safeguarding the interests of Marathi speakers, while the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is best-known for its violent agitations on the issue.
Yet, since 2014, in the face of the Narendra Modi-led BJP becoming the state’s largest party, their core agendas no longer found takers and both the cousins lost steam. Last year’s state assembly elections demonstrated this explicitly: the BJP, after its Lok Sabha drubbing where it won just 9 of the 28 seats it contested, went all-out on a Hindutva plank during the assembly polls and pushed Islamophobic conspiracies on everything from love jihad, to land jihad to ‘vote jihad’. It managed to notch up its best-ever tally of 132 seats, just 13 short of a full-majority.
This Hindutva-driven hegemony of the BJP has cost them both. The cousins have seen their vote banks shrink with the BJP’s ascendance, which has left them with an unclear ideological plank. Uddhav’s Sena fell from 57 to just 20 in last year’s elections, and Raj’s MNS saw its vote share halved and failed to win even one of the 125 seats it fought.
Uddhav has, over the years, shown his disclination towards the shrill, violent Hindutva rhetoric the BJP happily espouses. Raj has tried his hand at it in the past—he had backed the CAA/NRC, had launched an agitation against Bangladeshi immigrants and had threatened violence if loudspeakers atop mosques were not removed—but it hasn’t gotten him anywhere.
Which is why, insiders said, the reunion comes with a new formula: Marathi asmita with a dose of Hindutva on the side.
“It is the perfect formula, at least in theory: who can be bigger flag bearers of Marathi asmita than the Thackerays. And once they come together, how can you term them anti-Hindus?,” an Uddhav Sena strategist asked.
The positioning might throw the BJP into a quandary.
Its panic-stricken reaction to the rally showed this dilemma. BJP motormouth and cabinet minister Nitesh Rane, known for his charged communal rhetoric, called it a “jihadi” and “anti-Hindu” gathering, a charge very few would take seriously in the state.
For both of them, the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) holds a promise and a threat: the promise of a new lease of life if they win big, and the threat of further political obliteration if their slide continues.
Yet, neither of them has the firepower to go alone. For Uddhav, the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s National Congress Party are weak, redundant allies in Mumbai. For Raj, the ruling BJP-led alliance is too crowded and offers little space for him.
Which is why, lost and floundering, the two cousins are finally looking at each other.
The Plank
It is in this political context that the Maharashtra government’s decision to impose the National Education Policy’s three-language formula by making Hindi a mandatory language for classes 1 to 5, provided the perfect timing for the cousins to reunite.
For months, civil society actors had been mobilising Marathi populations across the state in opposition to the Fadnavis government’s move. Initially, both brothers expressed support, independently.
But a senior leader in the MNS said the party was surprised at how quickly the agitation caught on.
“To be honest, we had thought the issue of Marathi asmita had run its course,” the leader said, on condition of anonymity. “But we saw that it connected and galvanised so many people which was very surprising to us all,” the leader admitted.
A leader from Uddhav’s Shiv Sena said the overwhelming response was also being interpreted as a vent for the frustration of many.
“The Thackerays have been a central figure in the state’s politics for years even if they haven’t won that often,” the leader said. “The BJP’s strategy to diminish them has been a sore point for many Maharashtrians and the BJP’s decision to bring in Hindi was the last nail for them,” the leader added.
That response quickly made the party recalibrate its involvement in the issue, and the wheels started turning between the two parties. In April, Raj publicly signalled his willingness, insisting that reuniting with Uddhav wasn’t “a very difficult thing”, dismissing their differences as being minor.
It is this positive response that has brought a fresh dose of self-belief in the Thackeray cousins about their ability to fight a renewed battle against the BJP using Marathi Asmita as their weapon and shield.
“Sub-nationalism has always been a very potent force of mobilisation,” said MNS leader and spokesperson Anil Shidore. “We have seen in various states that sub-nationalism and linguistic pride has been a very effective counter to this top-down nationalism” he said.
On Saturday, the agenda for both cousins was stoking this sub-nationalism.
Both cousins asked Marathi people to stay united and resist being divided on the basis of caste.
“This is not the end of the struggle. Be cautious,” Raj said. “Now they (the BJP) will try to divide us using caste and religion. Do not fall prey to it,” he added.
Not Yet A Done Deal?
Both parties, for now, though, maintain that Sunday’s event was “non-political”, and have been non-committal about an electoral alliance.
Yet, both in their speeches, gave enough indicators that an alliance was on the cards.
Raj, spreading his arms, said he hoped this unity remained “forever.”
“And the dream that Balasaheb had for Maharashtra, we should try and fulfill that again,” he said, with ‘the dream’ widely interpreted to mean a reunion of the two cousins.
Uddhav, on his part, said the event was “the beginning” and that the two cousins had “come together to stay together.”
Yet, those who know the two cousins realise that such an alliance is easier than done. The two have been bitter foes of each other and have been known to criticise each other in acerbic terms, in private.
Both run parties in which only their word counts. A formal alliance, which requires understanding between the two, can be a cumbersome affair when the relationship, itself, is patchy.
The BJP and the Shinde Shiv Sena, too, have been watching warily at the reunion and will try their best to convince Raj to not go with his cousin, and might use various tricks, including the threat of a pending Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation against Raj to lure him away.
Optimism And More
Yet, in the rank and file of both parties, Saturday’s event signals that an alliance has already commenced.
Ravi Chaudhary drove through the night from Maharashtra’s Jalgaon district, to be able to witness the two brothers reuniting. When the two brothers entered the hall, Chaudhary, 42, could not stop jumping with joy.
"I have been waiting for this day for 12 years, ever since I got into politics,” he said. “It feels like a dream I was seeing has turned into a reality.”
MNS leader Prakash Mahajan, brother of the late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan, told TV channels that he felt “free to die now”, since the two cousins had reunited. Former Sena UBT MP Chandrakant Khaire made a symbolic ‘phone call’ to the late Sena chief Bal Thackeray to ‘convey’ the news of the reunion.
The workers are ready, the leaders are waiting. Marathi asmita was enough to draw the two cousins together. Will it be good enough to make them win again?
(Kunal Purohit is an award-winning independent journalist, writing on politics, gender, development, inequalities, and the intersections between them. He is an alumnus of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)