Kirit Somaiya's son salutes late Bal Thackeray

Mumbai: Neil Somaiya, son of BJP leader and MP Kirit Somaiya and aspirant for a BJP ticket in the upcoming BMC elections is now in the news. On Monday morning, he sent a WhatsApp message saluting Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray on his birth anniversary.

This comes at a time when his father has been constantly attacking Sena and the Thackeray family for alleged corruption in the civic body. Many are seeing Neil’s move as an attempt on the part of his father to harp on Balasaheb’s legacy in Mumbai to protect Neil from the ire of Sena workers.

Neil is keen to contest the coming BMC elections from Mulund. He has been active in party affairs through its youth wing, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, and has been preparing ground for the post of councilor for the past two years. To that effect, he is a frequent user of social media. On Monday morning, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the late Sena supremo, he sent a WhatsApp message to all his contacts saluting Balasaheb.

However, this does not change the fact that for the past few months, his father and BJP leader Kirit Somaiya has been consistently targeting the civic body for alleged corruption in its various departments. At one point, he even said it was time to wrest control of BMC from the hands of the Thackeray family. No doubt his son Neil’s salutation has surprised many in political circles.

When contacted, Kirit had this to say, “Balasaheb was for me like a father and for Neil, he was like a grandfather. It is our duty to pay respect to a man who was a father figure for us.”