‘Daughter’ Supriya Sule misses Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray on Uddhav’s swearing-in day

Mumbai: With Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray set to be sworn in as Maharashtra chief minister, Thursday, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Supriya Sule turned emotional and said the Sena chief’s father late Bal Thackeray and mother Meenatai Thackeray should have been around this day.

Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar, said Bal Thackeray and his wife treated her with love and affection ‘more than a daughter’ would get, and that she was missed them a lot.

Pawar and Bal Thackeray had been bitter critics of each other in the political sphere, but shared cordial relations off it. In 2006, the then Sena president Bal Thackeray did not field a party candidate when Pawar named Sule as the NCP’s candidate for a Rajya Sabha seat.

The Shiv Sena is forming government in Maharashtra with once-rivals, the NCP and Congress.

“Maa Saheb and Bala Saheb – missing you so much today. Both of you should have been here today. They treated me with so much love and affection more than a daughter! Their role in my life will always be special and memorable!” Sule tweeted. Meenatai Thackeray was also known as ‘Maa Saheb’.

The Shiv Sena recently came together with the NCP and Congress to form government after falling out with its long-term ally BJP over the issue of the chief minister’s post following the last month’s state Assembly polls.

Agencies