MUMBAI: “Chandrayaan 2 couldn’t land on the moon but we will ensure that this son (Aaditya Thackeray) reaches the sixth floor of Mantralaya (the chief minister’s office) on 24th October,”
Saamna
executive editor Sanjay Raut said moments after
Aaditya Thackeray declared on Monday he would contest the state polls.
Raut’s statement makes it clear that the new generation of the Thackeray family wants executive responsibilities and not just the “remote control” which the late
Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray was so proud of wielding. This aim at gaining a key position in government is the reason Aaditya has taken the plunge into electoral politics, sources said. And Uddhav Thackeray has owned up to having a desire for power – to “serve the people,” he says.
The fact that Aaditya becomes the first in the family to contest elections becomes his USP, something the Sena would be hoping would ensure he stays in the limelight, during this poll season and after results.
This way, the Sena can argue Uddhav’s son is charting his own path and not merely following the course set by his grandfather and father – a claim then expected to fortify the claim to a prestigious place within the state cabinet.
Getting directly elected would also blunt allegations that the Thackeray family wields power without responsibility. During Balasaheb’s era, such allegations would not matter much, given the size of his following and the zeal of his followers. But the new generation – which has the responsibility of again making Sena the senior partner in the saffron alliance — could more than do with the imprimatur of legislative legitimacy and an apparent sense of accountability. A comfortable win would, in addition, enable Aaditya to build his team for the Sena’s, and his own, future. .
Charges of dynastic rule will remain and could intensify. The Sena’s reply, again, will be that it’s now a dynasty that has fully embraced the poll process.
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