Mumbai, Oct 23 (IANS) Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray on Thursday came together again on the occasion of Bhai Dooj.

Both cousins visited their sister Jayawanti Thackeray Deshpande’s home to celebrate Bhai Dooj. The Thackeray family reunion took place at the Buildarch Daffodil building in Dadar.

Both families were seen together as Raj Thackeray arrived with his entire family, while Uddhav Thackeray attended with his wife, Rashmi Thackeray. Amit Thackeray and Urvashi Thackeray were also present.

Aditya and Tejas Thackeray were also in attendance to celebrate Bhai Dooj. It was purely a family moment for both the cousins, but it created a buzz in the state politics.

The estranged cousins reunited after almost 20 years on the issue of Marathi pride while strongly opposing what they claimed that the imposition of Hindi as a compulsory language after Marathi and English from grade one in the state under the garb of the National Education Policy by the BJP-led MahaYuti government.

In the wake of strong protests by Thackeray brothers, opposition parties and literary organisations, the state government withdrew two government resolutions on the introduction of Hindi as the third compulsory language and thereafter established a committee headed by the former Planning Commission member Narendra Jadhav to make the recommendations.

The Thackeray brothers, on July 5, held a victory rally after the government’s turnaround, declaring that they had come together to stay together.

That sparked the buzz about the alliance between Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray and Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in the ensuing elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation in a serious bid to checkmate BJP-led MahaYuti.

Although the Thackeray brothers have yet to formally take a decision about their tie-up up they have come together along with other opposition parties on the issue of vote rigging.

They were a part of a delegation of opposition parties which met the state chief electoral officer and state election commissioner, demanding the postponement of upcoming local and civic body elections until the present voters’ list is rectified.

They claimed the rectification is necessary as there are a large number of bogus and duplicate voters. They also demanded the conducting of a special summary revision of the voters’ list.

Last week, Uddhav Thackeray, with his family, was present at the inauguration of the illumination of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Park organised by Raj Thackeray.

Earlier, Uddhav visited Raj Thackeray’s residence at Dadar to celebrate the birthday of the latter’s mother, and before that, he went there during the Ganesh festival. In the last four months, the Thackeray brothers have met more than 10 times.

–IANS

sj/dan