Ghettoisation against Marathis in Mumbai due to BJP: Aaditya Thackeray

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of discriminating against the Marathi people and causing their ghettoisation in Mumbai, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray said the leading Mahayuti partner has seeded hate among people on the basis of language, religion and caste. “This was never the culture of Maharashtra. How can you bully the local people?” he said.

In an exclusive conversation with The Hindu, ahead of the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, Mr. Aaditya Thackeray spoke about Mumbai’s redevelopment, the coming together of Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray and the estrangement with the Congress.

He said that the Shiv Sena (UBT) will fight for the rights of Marathis of Mumbai. “In the last three years, Mumbai has faced a different situation. Many housing societies have practised exclusion, refusing houses either because the person is a Marathi manoos or because they eat meat. The courage to do this in our own capital of Maharashtra has come only since the BJP has come to power,” he said.

Adding that linguistic diversity was not an issue, he said the party always stood for the “sons of the soil”, even as Mumbai flourished as a cosmopolitan centre. “But when a Union Minister of the BJP walks past a Koliwada covering his nose, or when the new buildings want to get rid of a Koliwada because the smell is troubling them, how can you do that? How can you bully the local population when you are trying to assimilate with them?” said the legislator from Worli. He was referring to the allegation that Piyush Goyal, the BJP candidate in the 2024 general election from North Mumbai, covered his nose while passing through a Koliwada, a traditional fishing village.

He also hit out at the BJP for pegging its campaign around the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators and said it is “working on Ravana’s footprints on the land of Lord Ram in Tapovan”, referring to the State government’s proposal to cut 1,800 trees for the construction of Sadhugram in Nashik’s Tapovan area, which will host Simhastha Kumbh Mela next year. The proposal has been stayed by the National Green Tribunal and the Bombay High Court.

He said the party opposed the inclusion of Hindi in primary schools due to its implications regarding the cognitive development of children. “We are not opposed to the three-language policy. What we are saying is, don’t impose the third language in the first grade,” said the former Higher Education Minister, adding that students anyway learn three languages at the secondary level.

In 2025, the Maharashtra government made Hindi compulsory as the third language from Classes 1 to 5 in Marathi- and English-medium State-run schools. The decision met stiff opposition, forcing the scrapping of the rule.

On the assertion by several parties about Mumbai’s mayor being a Marathi manoos, he said the subject has never been up for debate. “This was never debated by any party other than the BJP, which is interested only in polarising voters.”

Criticising the Congress over its refusal to stay within the Maha Vikas Aghadi fold, he said, “Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and all other parties that believe in Mumbai are together. It is for them (Congress) to chart their own course.”

Mr. Aaditya Thackeray added, “In the 2017 BMC poll, when the BJP’s tally increased to 80, it was owing to the shift by Congress voters. We are sticking together for Mumbai and all Mumbaikars are with us,” he said, expressing confidence in the victory of the Shivshakti, comprising Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and various Ambedkarite parties, fighting the BMC poll together.