Sena (UBT), MNS workers cautious about reunion buzz

Many Shiv Sainiks and MNS workers HT spoke to, downplayed MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s recent visit to Matoshree to greet Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on his 65th birthday, even though the meeting further fuelled the reunion rumours

MUMBAI: The Thackeray cousins may have caused a stir in the corridors of power with broad hints of a possible reunion ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, but grassroots activists from both Uddhav and Raj’s parties – Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), respectively – seem unwilling to share their leaders’ enthusiasm.

Mumbai, India, July 05, 2025: Raj Thackeray, Chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), and Uddhav Thackeray, Chief of Shiv Sena (UBT), reunited after 20 years at a public rally at NSCI Dome, Worli in Mumbai. The event, titled "Awaj Marathicha" (Voice of the Marathi), was jointly organised by Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS to mark the withdrawal of government resolutions (GRs) related to the three-language policy in primary schools. Mumbai, India. 05, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Raju Shinde)

While the ‘bhai-bhai’ saga has sustained since the time both joined forces to celebrate the state government withdrawing its plan to impose Hindi as a compulsory third language in primary schools, party workers have nursed two doubts: firstly, will the alliance really happen, and secondly, even if they do manage to come together, will they be able to garner a sizeable chunk of wards in a 227-strong city hall and keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at bay?

BMC is the country’s richest civic body, its annual budget for 2025 pegged at ₹74,427 crore. While the BJP has its eyes on BMC, it has for over four decades been a lifeline for Matoshree’s Shiv Sena. Uddhav and Raj need to retain it, if only to celebrate Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s legacy.

Many Shiv Sainiks and MNS workers HT spoke to, downplayed MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s recent visit to Matoshree to greet Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray on his 65th birthday, even though the meeting further fuelled the reunion rumours.

A Shiv Sainik said, “Raj saheb has affection for Balasaheb Thackeray, Matoshree and the family. However, noble gestures need to translate into action and a cohesive poll strategy.” Many workers like him wince at Raj’s unpredictable style of politics, especially his flip-flops with the BJP during the 2019 and 2024 general elections. They also worry about Raj’s lack of consistency on the issue of north Indian migrants.

Karyakartas of both parties, however, hold a unanimous view that Thackerays should play the Marathi card in the wake of the Jain community’s growing urge to display its new-found clout in Mumbai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The Jain-Marathi equations have been strained following the former’s aggressive pro-vegetarian crusade in many parts of the city.

On Wednesday, a band of 1,000 Jain devotees took out a protest march to the kabutarkhana, in Dadar, to condemn the ban on pigeon feeding. A section of protestors tried to pull down the tarpaulin covering at the site to feed pigeons. “The incident has angered local Marathis. The Jains may end up bringing Uddhav saheb and Raj saheb together,” said Shiv Sainik from Dadar.

Sceptics in the ranks however point out that such sporadic instances hardly provide an ideological framework and organisational muscle for the two beleaguered parties to merge into a strong force.

Sounding a dark note, a Sena (UBT) activist from the western suburbs also said workers are wary of breaking bread with MNS as “old wounds run deep”.

“Raj saab left the Shiv Sena in 2006 and built his party from scratch. We have also moved on, but the bitterness rankles. We can’t forget that he left Sena at a time when the party had hit a rough patch – we had lost power both in the state and Centre,” he said.

A Sena (UBT) activist said, with both parties targeting the city’s Marathi voters – pegged at 25-27% -- distribution of seats will be a challenge.

Evidently, both Uddhav and Raj will concentrate on Marathi pocket boroughs such as Girgaon, Girangaon (the Lalbaug-Parel-Sewri-Chinchpokli belt, the erstwhile textile mill hub); Dadar, Mahim, and the suburban Goregaon-Malad-Magathane-Dahisar-Gorai stretches on the western side.

The Kurla-Vikhroli-Bhandup-Kanjur Marg-Chembur villages, which dot the Central Railway route, also have a thick concentration of Marathi voters, most of them migrants from Konkan and western Maharashtra.

Another bone of contention between the two parties, said an MNS worker, will be the transfer of votes. “The post-1995 generation of karyakartas of both parties belong to Mumbai’s aspirational class, who wish to enter BMC at any cost. Having done organisational work, they will not give up their claim on a civic ward of their choice. Under such circumstances I can’t ask my workers to back Uddhav saheb’s candidates and the same is true about them,” said a senior MNS functionary from Dahisar.

A former BMC official, Prakash Paranjpe, spoke in a similar vein, saying, “With too many contestants across party lines throwing their hats in the ring, the civic election will fuel fierce competition at the grassroots level, triggering intra-party rivalry and defection. Sena (UBT) and MNS need to ensure smooth transfer of votes.” Sena (UBT) is already on a sticky wicket, with over 120 of its former corporators and functionaries having defected to Shiv Sena.

On the other hand, while it is rumoured that BJP is eyeing a few MNS functionaries ahead of the civic elections, peeved by the state government’s latest decision to go soft on the pigeon feeding at kabutarkhanas, Mumbai BJP’s Marathi workers may resent their party’s growing proximity with Mumbai’s mercantile community, which may prove favourable for the Thackerays’ ‘double engine’ should the alliance be forged.