At a time when his estranged nephew Raj Thackeray loses no opportunity to espouse the sons-of-the-soil cause, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray on Thursday made it clear that his son, Uddhav, was his natural successor and his party was the true champion of the “Marathi Manoos”.

Making his maiden speech at the Dussehra rally, Uddhav first prostrated before the cadre. “Every time a question is asked about whom Mumbai belongs to, I tell them that if you want an answer in the Thakeri (Thackeray) language, Mumbai belongs to our father,” said Uddhav. Daring critics to pose similar questions to the locals of Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, he said: “There, you people are too scared to speak out, but you come to Mumbai and thumb your noses at us while asking this question.”

Making it a point to emphasise that he was his father’s son, he said: “Wherever I go, there is a huge crowd. A huge crowd is here also. This crowd has not collected to see Uddhav Thackeray. They are not here to listen to Uddhav Thackeray, but to listen to Uddhav Bal Thackeray.”

In his customary public appearance at the party’s annual Dussehra rally at the Shivaji Park grounds, Bal Thackeray said: “You have listened to Uddhav speak. People say that he speaks in a mellow way, and is not aggressive. You have heard him speak, you decide.”

Making references to his advancing years, he made a pitch for supporting his son as his natural successor. “Some people are publicising as their agenda the speeches I had given earlier,” he said in an oblique reference to his nephew, adding that he was an infant when the Sena was founded. “This is not something that we are doing today. The Shiv Sena was born for the Maharashtrians,” he emphasised.

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