Next Maha...

Speaking at his party’s 52nd foundation day, Thackeray sent out mixed signals — he continued to criticise the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but did not talk on the issue of the alliance, or comment on his son and Sena’s youth wing chief Aaditya’s remark earlier in the day that the party would go solo; he welcomed the BJP’S decision to pull out of its alliance with the People’s Democratic Party in Jammu and Kashmir, but also attacked the Centre for suspending security operations in the state during Ramzan.

“We welcome the decision to pull out of the J&K government, but it took three years to come to this decision. Over 600 soldiers have died during this time. If terrorists don’t have a religion, why announce the unilateral ceasefire in Kashmir during Ramzan? Pakistan has never announced a ceasefire during Diwali, Navratri or Ganpati,” Thackeray said. He, however, was clear when he said he will not join the third front, which is being formed to take on the BJP.

Thackeray also mocked the BJP’S membership drive while kicking off his own party’s membership drive, with an aim to get a crore members. “I don’t believe in membership drives through missed calls, it should happen in person.” The BJP had carried out a membership drive where people could enroll by giving a missed call.

On the third front, Thackeray sent out a clear message to Sharad Pawar and the other political parties that he would not be a part of it. “Now, like-minded parties are coming together, but likemindedness is not that our party should come to power, or we would get this portfolio. Likemindedness is to know what the people of the country want and work towards it. I would come together for such a cause, but which is the party that has this aim?” he asked.

He hit out at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar for his divisive politics. “Shivaji Maharaj brought the Marathi people, who were divided by caste and community, under the saffron flag. What are you doing now? You are dividing the united Marathi manoos,” Thackeray said, referring to an incident where Pawar refused to wear the Puneri pagdi, and instead chose the Phule pagdi, associated with social reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule. While the Puneri pagdi is historically associated with Peshwas — the Brahmin prime ministers of the Maratha empire — the Phule pagdi is associated with Phule, and seen as a symbol of the “bahujans”.

Earlier in the day, Aaditya had set the tone by saying, “Till now, we have not tested our own strength and we kept fighting and were happy in what we got. But it will not go on anymore. We have decided that we will contest alone, win on our own strength and get a single-party government. Palghar was the beginning.”