Smita Thackeray meets Maha CM Eknath Shinde
Smita Thackeray meets Maha
CM Eknath Shinde
Smita Thackeray, ex-wife of Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s son Jaidev gave a big surprise and made eye-brows rise when she met Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde on Tuesday.
However, she described the meet as a pure ‘courtesy call.
On Tuesday, Smita, emerged as the first member of the Thackeray family to visit and congratulate Shinde. The meeting comes amid a cut-throat contest amid the rebel Sena camp led by Shinde, and the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, for the title of the “real” Shiv Sena.
Meanwhile, Political watchers dismiss any possibility of Smita Thackeray, who vanished from the political scene over a decade ago, making a comeback in Maharashtra politics as a third ‘Thackeray power centre’ alongside Uddhav and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray.
For the unversed Smita Thackeray was a power centre when the 1995-99 Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was in power, but she has been out of politics for a long time now.
She may have had some old relation with Eknath Shinde.
Speaking to the media persons on Wednesday, Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe, deputy chairman in the state legislative council and an Uddhav loyalist, affirmed that Smita Thackeray is an “independent personality and who she chooses to meet is her prerogative.
Gorhe, however, added a note of caution, saying, Smita should remember she is Balasaheb’s daughter-in-law and act accordingly.
Once a power centre
Smita Thackeray used to work as a receptionist at a private company before her 1987 marriage to Jaidev made her the woman holding the reins of the Thackeray household, and a socialite part of Mumbai’s flashy film circles.
She emerged as an important voice in Matoshree, the Thackeray residence, after Balasaheb lost his wife, Meenatai Thackeray, in 1995, and his oldest son, Bindumadhav, in an accident in 1996. Smita was known for calling civil servants directly, requesting particular files, and accompanying her father-in-law to meet visitors at Matoshree in the morning.
This is also the period when Smita made a reputation for herself as a socialite and forayed into the world of films, producing her first movie, ‘Haseena Maan Jayegi’, with financial backing from diamond merchant Bharat Shah.
While Jaidev moved out of Matoshree in the late 1990s owing to increasing differences with Smita, she continued to live on the first floor of the Thackeray residence until her divorce was finalised in 2004.
Her clout in Matoshree was inversely proportional to that of Uddhav Thackeray’s.
Smita Thackeray’s clout in the Thackeray family’s political decisions declined significantly as Uddhavsaheb, initially said to be reserved and reticent by nature, started handling things for Balasaheb from the forefront,” a Shiv Sena functionary from the Uddhav camp. The Shiv Sena founder eventually named Uddhav as his successor in 2003.
In political shadows Smita
Thackeray’s discord with the Uddhav-led Sena first came to the fore in 2009 about joining the Congress, calling herself a “big admirer of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi”.
News Input K.V.Raman
