Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray and Shiv Sena (UBT) Chief Uddhav Thackeray announce the Shiv Sena (UBT)-MNS alliance ahead of the Mumbai municipal elections on Wednesday (December 24, 2025). | Photo credit: ANI
As Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray buried their two-decade-old hatchet and announced an electoral alliance between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) for the local polls in the state on Wednesday (December 24, 2025), they offered analogies from the Maharashi-born Shiv Senayukta movement to the battle for Maharashtra. 1960s on the board of Marathi manoos (sons of the soil).
Through the reunion, the Thackeray cousins are trying to tap into the emotional appeal of the ‘Thackeray brand’ to the Marathi manoos. But will it lead to easy profits?
When the Marathi Manos of Mumbai felt disenfranchised, the struggle led to the death of 106 persons fighting for Mumbai to be included in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena was born in the 1960s out of the discontent and anger of citizens seeking the rights of their own city. For decades thereafter, the Marathi Manos stood firm with Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and the party to give it full control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the country’s richest municipal corporation.
On Wednesday, the Thackeray cousins invoked their grandfather and social reformer ‘Prabodhankar’ Thackeray, along with their respective fathers, to highlight the family’s lineage that fought for the Marathi manoos and how this is under threat once again.
Doubling up on the ‘Thackeray brand’, the families first paid their respects to Bal Thackeray at his memorial before traveling together to a joint address. Uddhav’s wife Rashmi Thackeray and Raj’s wife Sharmila Thackeray listened in rapt attention as their husbands formally announced the alliance in a short speech without giving any details.
The differences between what was raised and what the current situation is are quite significant. First, the demographics of Mumbai have changed considerably, which does not give the Marathi-speaking population the opportunity to vote for parties. Even this bank of votes does not vote uniformly. The BJP claims to have support among the upper class of the Marathi-speaking population. Second, both the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the MNS have faced political debacles in the recent past that have significantly reduced the strength of their parties. The results of the first two phases of local body and nagar panchayat elections in the state reflect an abysmal performance. The Shiv Sena (UBT) could get only nine candidates elected as presidents in the 288 local body polls, fifth among the top six parties, while the MNS did not contest at all in these two phases.
In 2017, when the Shiv Sena contested the BMC elections as a united party before incumbent Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde split the party, it polled around 27% of the vote. It was the single largest party with 84 seats, while the BJP was just two short of them. But today, Shinde’s Shiv Sena has 38 of these 84 councilors in the corporation, while MNS had six councilors then.
So far, both the cousins have been fighting for the same vote bank to get votes. They hope their reunion will stop the division of votes.
Last year, Raj Thackeray supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The challenge for Uddhava Thackeray will be to document such differences.
More importantly, the move to join hands for the civic polls led to the disintegration of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance. He argues that the Congress cannot justify to its voter base a “divisive and communal force” like Raj Thackeray. Experts say the Shiv Sena (UBT) will not see any shift in votes from the Congress voter base. The Congress has categorically declared that it will fight the Shiv Sena (UBT), making it an uphill battle for the cousins. In this situation, Uddhav Thackeray released a bigger ally to join hands with Raj Thackeray. But the cousins will now have a board of Hindutva to play on in the campaign arena where they will compete with the BJP and Eknath Shinde for their claims.
There are also questions about the trust between the cousins. “Maharashtra’s interest is greater than the differences between the two of us,” Raj Thackeray said on Wednesday after the merger was announced. At the same time, the siblings did not speak freely and openly about their understanding of sharing places.
Published – 25 Dec 2025 02:35 IST
