In his apparent effort to mend fences with the peeved party leadership, senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi on Sunday met his party president Uddhav Thackeray and greeted the latter on the occasion of Diwali festival.
In a meeting that came three weeks after he was booed off the stage by the party workers at the Sena’s annual Dussehra rally held at Shivaji Park, 76-year-old Joshi called on Uddhav at the latter’s Bandra residence “Matoshri” and exchanged Diwali greetings. Uddhav’s wife Rashmi was present at the meeting.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Joshi said that he had gone to “Matoshri” with the sole purpose of extending Diwali greetings to the Sena president. “We did not discuss politics at the meeting. We merely exchanged Diwali greetings,” the former lok Sabha Speaker said.
Joshi — who had walked out of the Sena’s Dussehra rally after being heckled by a section of party workers at the October 13 Dussehra rally in protest against his recent utterances disapproving Uddhav’s “mild style” of leadership — said that he would not visit the party president’s residence unless he was invited to do so.
Four days after he suffered humiliation at the party’s Dussehra rally, Joshi had written a letter to Uddhav and expressed his stand on the circumstances leading to his leaving the Dussehtra rally venue on October 13.
After writing the letter, Joshi had told the media that the “humiliation” he suffered at the hands of party workers was “pre-planned” one and that Sena president Uddhav Thackeray had no role to play in it. “… the Sena President (Uddhav Thackeray) was not aware of the conspiracy against me, leave aside his being part of it”.
“I was extremely upset with whatever happened at the Dussehra rally. That’s why I had gone out of Mumbai with my family for four days….. I have already written a letter to the party president (Uddhav Thackeray) and explained my stand on the issue,” he had said.
Joshi had also gone on record, saying that he had not committed any mistake and the question of his tendering any apology did not arise. “I have been a Shiv Sainik for the last four and a half decades and will continue to be in the Shiv Sena”.
Joshi — who was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra between March 14, 1995 and January 31, 1999 when the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance was in power in the state for the first time and was later the Speaker of lok Sabha from May 10 2002 to June 2, 2004 during the BJP-led NDA regime - has desperately been lobbying for a Sena ticket to contest the 2014 lok Sabha polls from Mumbai’s south-central Mumbai constituencies or the constituencies in Thane district like Thane or Kalyan city.
Joshi’s criticism of Uddhav came after the Sena leadership sent across subtle hints to him that the party was in no mood to give him the party ticket to contest the 2014 lS polls.
That Joshi, a close aide of late Sena chief Bal Thackeray was longer in the Sena leadership’s good books became evident in March last year when he was denied party ticket to re-contest the Rajya Sabha poll. Instead, the Sena leadership hand-picked a relatively young party man Anil Desai for the RS nomination, ahead of the tried, test but no-longer-trusted Joshi.
Efforts by Joshi to bury hatchet with the upset party leadership notwithstanding, Uddhav is understood to be averse to giving a party ticket to Joshi from Mumbai south-Central, a lok Sabha constituency in which the Sena-stronghold Dadar falls. Nor is the Sena keen on fielding Joshi from either Thane or Kalyan, where the Sena has a large following among the voters.
The Sena leadership has reportedly made up its mind to field its young leader and chairman of the crucial standing committee Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Rahul Shewale, from Mumbai south-central lok Sabha constituency in the 2014 poll. So much so that Shewale has already begun preparations for contesting from this constituency.