Coming together on the issue of providing free housing to Mumbai’s displaced mill workers, Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackery and his estranged cousin, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray, on Thursday participated in a protest march.
Uddhav and Raj, however, walked separately with their supporters in the march, with the former walking in front and Raj in the middle. The march was organised to highlight the housing problems of over 1.5 lakhs workers of closed textile mills. Also supporting the cause were Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Tawade and Republican Party of India chief Ramdas Athawale who accompanied Uddhav in the march.
The five-kilometre-long march started from Byculla in southcentral Mumbai and will culminate in south Mumbai’s Azad Maidan where the cousins are likely to address thousands of mill workers who brought out the protest march. This is the first time in the five-and-a-half years since they parted ways that the estranged Thackeray cousins will come together on a public platform, though separately.
The protest march organised by nine different employee unions to demand free houses for over 1.5 lakhs workers of the closed textile mills in Mumbai.