Renewed estranged cousins Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray have formally united in advance of the looming civic body elections in Mumbai promising to be permanently united. Political observers and the general public had been looking forward to the announcement which occurred on Wednesday at a high-profile event in Mumbai months after they had made such a dramatic display of unity when the two leaders appeared together on stage for the first time in almost two decades.
In the new alliance, Shiv Sena wing under Uddhav Thackeray and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) under Raj Thackeray will both vie in the civic elections which will take place on January 15. Raj Thackeray, who was present at the event, said in Marathi that Maharashtra had been longing to get this day. I can say today that Shiv Sena and MNS are joined together. He pointed out that the interests of Maharashtra would take precedence over all other interests in the alliance and promised that Maharashtra would have a representative mayor in the form of either his party or the Uddhav camp.
Uddhav Thackeray also reflected this feeling of pride in the region and said, “Marathi people do not usually bother anybody but when they meet on the way, they are not spared. Both leaders called the alliance as a historic move to unite the Marathi political power in Mumbai and other important municipal corporations.
The seat-sharing arrangements on 29 municipal corporations of Maharashtra are still in the discussion list even though the alliance has been formalized. It is reported that there are disagreements between the two sides in certain wards in places like Dadar, Mahim, Borivali, Vikhroli, Bhandup and Sewri. There has been an on-going discussion on how the seats can be distributed, and both sides hope to have the seat arrangements concluded during the next few weeks.
Other than Mumbai, the alliance is also considering possible alliances with the Nationalist congress party (NCP) and other regional stakeholders and this is an indication that the alliance has greater plans ahead with the next civic elections.
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