After three years, Raj calls on Bal Thackeray

Mumbai, November 23: MNS chief Raj Thackeray drove down to the house of his estranged uncle Bal Thackeray on Sunday and spent time with him and cousin Uddhav for the first time since he walked out of the Shiv Sena and formed his own party nearly three years ago, triggering frenzied speculation ahead of elections due next year.

Although both sides claimed it was a family affair, political observers wondered if this was the first hint of a possible patch-up or whether it had anything to do with the health of Thackeray senior, who has been ill for some months.

Accompanied by some close aides, Raj went to ‘Matoshree’, the Bandra residence of Bal and Uddhav Thackeray, and spent about 20 minutes closeted with his uncle during which Uddhav was called in by his father. Asked by reporters later if it was a meeting between the Sena chief and the MNS president, Raj replied: “It was a meeting between an uncle and a nephew.” Later, he cryptically added, “the time must be ripe for some things.”

Later in the day, after a visit to the photo exhibition of The Indian Express Group’s Ramnath Goenka India Press Photo Awards 2008, Raj said he had gone over to ‘Matoshree’ to return some cartoon books his uncle had asked about. “I found the book he had asked about a long time ago and called him yesterday to ask if I could return it,” Raj told The Indian Express. “We spoke about Norman Rockwell, one of his favourite cartoonists. He recollected some of his old memories. The book I returned was so old, some of the pages had been pasted in.”

Raj said the two did not discuss politics or his pro-Maharashtrian campaign, adding that Thackeray senior’s health was good. Shiv Sena spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, too, said the meeting was a domestic matter. Raj said he had been in touch with his uncle over the phone occasionally since 2006. Thackeray senior, he added, had spoken to him after his release from police custody following his arrest last month in connection with the MNS attacks on north Indians taking railway job exams. Bal Thackeray had recalled his own experience of being jailed in 1969 during the Sena’s campaign over the Maharashtra border dispute, he added.

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