Aaditya Thackeray — the son of Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena, and the grandson of Bal Thackeray. He is currently the President of Yuva Sena, a youth wing of Shiv Sena and trying hard to create his existence in the state politics. His major achievement is that he belongs to the Thackeray family and that is his merit too as a post-bearer of the party. More than 50 years after the Shiv Sena was born, Aaditya Thackeray making it roars again. He represents the future of the party that is gripped by many crises. The hope it held out for the Marathi-speaking people when it was launched in 1966 has acquired sepia tones but has not been fulfilled. Sena-BJP alliance was in turbulence but both are aware of the fact that if they part, they have no future in the state. To make it to the power, whether they like or dislike, they have no other choice than contesting together. After 30 years of playing elder brother in an alliance with the then-fledgling Bharatiya Janata Party, the national party unbalanced off the relationship last year and established an equation in which the Sena was uncomfortably playing the second fiddle. After Balasaheb Thackeray, Uddhav somehow maintained and sustained the ties with the alliance but he lost his credibility as an individual. In such crises, 29-year-old Aadtiya Thackeray, the fourth generation in Prabodhankar Thackeray’s lineage, is being portrayed as the poster boy of Shiv Sena. There is a battalion of PR agencies campaigning for him day and night.

Alike Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Aaditya also sports stubble and spectacles. After Rahul, Priyanka too has joined active politics on the national level. In Maharashtra, also the third generation of the Pawar family is preparing to enter the politics with Ajit Pawar’s son Parth likely to be given a candidature.

Young faces from the next generation are taking over the political landscape. One difference is that neither Balasaheb nor Uddhav or Raj ever contested the elections; they always remained the remote controls of their political party but this time, Aaditya Thackeray may come is the battleground by contesting elections. He can be even projected as the future CM candidate of Maharashtra.

The 29-year-old, law graduate Thackeray scion has been active in politics for around a decade. Though he started off with Yuva Sena, he had been primarily busy with steering the affairs of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) over the past two years after Shiv Sena was able to hold its bastion with a wafer-thin margin in a bitter battle against the BJP. Aaditya had also attracted controversies for his insistence for an open nightlife culture in Mumbai and foot-path gyms in the city. The imported Penguins housed in a special pavilion at Byculla zoo was also his baby. He also focused on sectors like education, environment, and social work, where he can directly engage with the youth.

However, whether he would be able to give the necessary fillip to the party that can enable the organisation to gain power in the state on its own is still a question! Moreover, the Thackeray family’s avowed stance of not contesting public elections too is likely to be a hurdle for him. Not contesting elections was kind of inevitable for Balasaheb and Uddhav. Aaditya is young. Health and age are on his side unlike that of his father and grandfather.

Shiv Sena, long known for its conservative political and social outlook while being in opposition, has always garnered headlines for ‘Sanskaari’ moral policing – like vandalising public property over Valentine’s Day celebrations for instance.

Aaditya, however, came with a fresh set of ideas, targeting the young voters, completely contradicting the general perception of the party over decades.

The young Thackeray scion certainly seems to be focussing on the issues of a different colour than the ones the old Shiv Sena paid much attention to.

On the day of Aaditya’s elevation, party chief Uddhav Thackeray made the announcement that the party would be going national in 2019 ‘for the sake of Hindutva’. Is this simply that the Shiv Sena’s way of courting young/urban voters with a more progressive face, while holding onto the core Hindutva and Marathi vote bank? Aaditya too has nothing to lose and everything to gain. He does not have to worry about the party’s poll prospects as it is being taken care of by his father and Sena Executive President Uddhav under the guidance of his grandfather Bal Thackeray. Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray is playing his cards close to his chest when it comes to an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. While a desperate BJP has surrendered to the Shiv Sena to join hands for the Hindutva cause, Thackeray has his eye on something else. Uddhav would be more interested in seeing his son in active politics and one at the peak of power in this alliance bargain.

Most of all, as Shiv Sena completes more than five decades, its leadership has not been able to offer its cadres a sustaining vision beyond a programme of hate that has constantly created new enemies over the decades to suit the prevailing political climate. Uddhav has been caricatured for most of his political life. Some of his father’s sound political advisors are not with him – some he manoeuvred out of the party, others left, calling the mild-mannered man unflattering names. Despite this, the Shiv Sena seems a diminished party in its influence and impact; its tiger roar has perceptibly muted. However, still, what the Shiv Sena has in its favour is stupendous organisational strength, a network of cadres that rises to any emergency as swiftly as it does to every call for action and a cult-like loyalty to Bal Thackeray that Uddhav frequently taps into. In many parts of rural Maharashtra, it continues to be the main opposition to the Congress. Now, the most interesting thing would be the young cub of Thackeray’s; will he roar like Balasaheb or stay muted like father, that time has to decide.

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