Who is Uddhav Thackeray?

Uddhav Thackeray, also known as Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray is an Indian politician who served as the 19th Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He is also the president of Shiv Sena.

Born on July 27, 1960, Thackeray did his schooling from Balmohan Vidyamandir and graduated from Sir JJ Institute of Applied Art with photography as his main subject.

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In 2002, Thackeray started his political career as campaign incharge of Shiv Sena in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation elections where the party performed well. In 2003, he was appointed as working president of Shiv Sena.

Uddhav took over as chief editor of party mouthpiece Saamana (a daily Marathi-language newspaper published by Shiv Sena) in 2006 and resigned in 2019 before becoming chief minister of Maharashtra.

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A split in Shiv Sena happened when his cousin Raj Thackeray left the party in 2006 to form his own party named Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. After the death of his father Bal Thackeray in 2012, he led the party and was elected as Shiv Sena president in 2013, and under his leadership Shiv Sena joined the NDA government in Maharashtra in 2014.

In his political career, Thackeray never took any constitutional post. However, after a brief political crisis, on November 28, 2019 he took the oath as 19th Chief minister of Maharashtra after being elected as the president of the newly formed post-poll coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

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In a 2021 Prashnam Survey, Thackeray was ranked the most popular Chief Minister in India out of 13 states, with nearly half of all voters surveyed saying that they will vote for him again.