| Wednesday, January 24, 2007 |
| A quiet 80th birthday for Bal Thackeray |
Bal Thackeray, the supremo of Shiv Sena, on Tuesday celebrated his 80th birthday in a very different manner.
This time around, Bal Thackeray's birthday was a definite break from tradition -- it was celebrated quietly and without his customary address to the Shiv Sena workers.
Thackeray spent the day at his residence, Matoshree, in suburban Bandra, Mumbai, with family members. He did not meet party workers and his fans as has been the practice for the past 40 years.
A small note in the Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana instructed party workers, who wanted to wish Thackeray, to deposit the amount they would have spent on flowers or garlands in an envelope at `Matoshree' as a donation.
Traditionally, Shiv Sainiks have celebrated Bal Thackeray's birthday with great enthusiasm and fanfare had thronged `Matoshree' in large numbers to meet and greet him.
Bal Thackeray, the cartoonist-turned-politician who founded the Shiv Sena 40 years ago, used to address party workers on his birthday.
In 2006, Thackeray broke another tradition by cancelling the Shiv Sena's annual rally on Dussehra, a public meeting which he had been addressing for the last 39 years.
The Shiv Sena patriarch, whose party is facing a major electoral battle in the civic polls, especially in Mumbai, has said time and again that his health was not the same as before and he would cut down on his public appearances.
At a time when the Shiv Sena is struggling with an anti-incumbency factor, both its political agendas of Marathi versus paraprantiya (the outsider) and Hindutva have taken a beating.
After the war of succession ended between his political heirs, Thackeray's estranged nephew Uddhav and his son Raj, it is now a struggle for existence between the two youngsters.
Balasaheb is unlikely to take an active role in the party's proceedings. A party leader said: "Mr Thackeray's health is not very good and he cannot come out and address gatherings regularly. A few days ago, when there was an election in Konkan, he had said that he would be addressing only one gathering a year."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 8:09 AM |
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