Jamlelya deshbhakta bandhawano, bhaginino aani maatanoâæ” The phrases ring out from a stage in Solapur, the textile city as soon as often known as the Manchester of Maharashtra. Rendered in English—“All my patriotic brothers, sisters and moms gathered right here”—it has all of the grandiose air of 1 who has come to bury a Caesar, albeit another way. The speaker is a tall, lanky, bespectacled man—relatively extra bookish-looking than his flamboyant father. Uddhav Thackeray’s chosen type of deal with too is a departure from what orators from his secure have deployed over time: the standard Shiv Sena invocation is to ‘Hindus’. It’s not simply that Solapur has a big Muslim inhabitants. The adjustment in vocabulary is in sync with the 180-degree flip Maharashtra’s politics has undergone over the previous 5 years. Right here, within the state’s southeastern inside, 430 km away from the town the place the celebration’s writ was as soon as legislation, the soft-spoken Uddhav is campaigning for a Congress candidate. The Solapur Lok Sabha seat is reserved for the Scheduled Castes, and Uddhav warns of the rumoured hazard to the Structure. Bal Thackeray’s son is defending a legacy, however decidedly from the opposite facet.
