Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) Poonam Mahajan on Sunday managed to mollify agitated Yuva Sena activists after a dispute had broken out over their chief Aaditya Thackeray’s photo not being featured in the former’s campaign posters and election pamphlets.
According to sources, Ms Mahajan visited the Thackeray family’s residence, Matoshree, on Sunday and met with Aaditya Thackeray, his father — Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray — and mother, Rashmi. The meeting, which went on for an hour, was positive, said sources.
Ms Mahajan clarified that the Shiv Sena’s protocol had not been followed on the posters due to the designer team’s mistake. She also said that she has asked the team to put up pictures of Uddhav Thackeray and Aaditya Thackeray, according to the Sena protocol.
Yuva Sena officials also clarified that everything had been sorted out.
Ms Mahajan will be changing all the campaign pamphlets and she has already made rectifications in her hoardings’ artwork and the organisation will now take part in Ms Mahajan’s campaign, as per directives of the party leadership, they said.
The Yuva Sena had refused to campaign for Ms Mahajan until Aaditya Thackeray’s photos were included in all campaign material.
According to Yuva Sena sources, Ms Mahajan’s campaign material included photos of Uddhav Thackeray, BJP president Amit Shah and Republican Party of India (RPI) leader Ramdas Athawale.
However, Aaditya Thackeray’s photo was missing from the pamphlets and posters. Irked by this, Yuva Sena leaders had issued an appeal to Sena supporters asking them to boycott the campaign.
Ms Mahajan is the sitting MP from the Mumbai North Central constituency in state.
