Updated On: 23 March, 2023 07:54 AM IST | Mumbai | Dharmendra Jore
MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s Gudhi Padwa rally has him spill a few family secrets, his love for the Shiv Sena of yore under Balasaheb, and his usual tirade at cousin Uddhav

Raj said he was deeply pained when the party, the Shiv Sena, that he had lived and breathed most of his life, and its election symbol, hung in the balance after Eknath Shinde`s rebellion. Pic/Rane Ashish
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray, at a rally in Shivaji Park on Wednesday, spilt a few family secrets, while blaming his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray for the Shiv Sena divide, including his own departure many years ago.
Raj said he was deeply pained when the party, the Shiv Sena, that he had lived and breathed most of his life, and its election symbol, hung in the balance after Eknath Shinde’s rebellion. It was meant to be, he said, telling a capacity crowd at Shivaji Park, that it was Uddhav who had been working on forcing people out. “I had said I didn’t have any complaint against Vitthal [the late Balasaheb], but the badawas [coterie] around him,” said Raj, narrating an incident between him and Uddhav, in which the latter had told the former that he did not want any post in the Shiv Sena (when it was united).