Born on January 23, 1926, Balasaheb Thackeray started his career as a cartoonist in the Free Press Journal in Mumbai. His cartoons were also published in the Sunday edition of The Times of India. In 1960, he launched a cartoon weekly Marmik with his brother. He used it to campaign against the growing influence of non-Marathi people in Mumbai, specifically targeting Gujaratis and South Indian labourers. His political philosophy was largely shaped by his father, Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, a leading figure in the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement (United Maharashtra Movement), which advocated the creation of a separate linguistic state of Maharashtra. In 1966, Thackeray formed the Shiv Sena party to advocate more strongly the place of Maharashtrians in Mumbai’s political and professional landscape. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Thackeray built the party by forming temporary alliances with nearly all of Maharashtra’s political parties.
The BJP-Shiv Sena combine won the 1995 Maharashtra State Assembly elections and came to power. During the tenure of the Government from 1995 to 1999, Thackeray was nicknamed ‘remote control’ since he played a major role in Government policies and decisions from behind the scenes.
On July 28, 1999, Bal Thackeray was banned from voting and contesting in any election for six years from December 11, 1999 till December 10, 2005 on the recommendations of the Election Commission. After the six-year voting ban on Bal Thackeray was lifted in 2005, he voted for the first time in the 2006 BMC elections. .
Thackeray, who used to be called ‘Hindu Hriday Samraat’ (Emperor of Hindu Hearts) by his followers, was the founder-editor of the party’s Marathi-language mouthpiece Saamna and the Hindi-language newspaper Dophar Ka Saamna.
The President and the Prime Minister both have mourned the passing away of Balasaheb despite the fact that in their political ideology they stood poles apart. In his condolence message the PM said that he was a consummate communicator whose stature in the politics of Maharashtra was unique.”For him the interests of Maharashtra were particularly important and he always strived to inculcate a sense of pride in the people of the State. He founded the Shiv Sena and built the party into a formidable force in the State politics with his strong leadership and extraordinary organizational skills,” said Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Interestingly, notwithstanding his strong anti-Congress stand, Thackeray had extended his party’s support to Pratibha Patil, also from Maharashtra, in the Presidential election in 2006 and later to Pranab Mukherjee in this year’s election.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said Shiv Sena patriarch Balasaheb Thackeray’s demise marks the end of an era. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) veteran Lal Krishna Advani on Saturday said that a political giant has departed. “It’s rare that I have seen in these 65 years of Independent India a political leader who has left such a deep and abiding imprint on the country as Shri Balasaheb Thackeray. Uncompromising in his patriotism, he possessed remarkable qualities of leadership and abundance of attributes of head and heart which made him command great respect among all those who came in his contact. I can only say that his demise today has left a gaping void in the country’s politics, which will not be easy to fill,” said Advani in his condolence message.
“He considered King Shivaji his idol. He worked for the people all his life. We took inspiration from him while governing in Maharashtra,” said BJP chief Nitin Gadkari. He was instrumental in ending the Congress hegemony in Maharashtra when his party and the BJP allied and formed a Government in 1994. Though the two parties shared power in New Delhi between 1998 and 2004, Thackeray never occupied any office.
Thackeray created history by founding Shiv Sena and taking it to great heights politically. He was fearless while speaking. Word ‘compromise’ never existed in his dictionary. The leader’s influence extended not just over politics and society but also over the film industry, evident from the beeline celebrities made to Matoshri to enquire about his health. The list included Amitabh Bachchan and son Abhishek, Salim Khan and son Salman Khan to Rishi Kapoor and brother Randhir and Lata Mangeshkar. Entire Mumbai plunged into sorrow and shutters were pulled down and traffic was off the road immediately after the news of leader’s departure came.
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