Amid the tussle between the two Shiv Sena factions over control of the party, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde -- whose intra-party revolt last month brought down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government -- greeted Mr. Thackeray on his 62 nd birthday on Wednesday.
While both Mr. Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Devendra Fadnavis wished Mr. Thackeray “a long and healthy life” in their respective tweets, the duo pointedly referred to Mr. Thackeray as “former Maharashtra Chief Minister” and not as “Shiv Sena chief”.
In contrast, Mr. Thackeray’s ally in the MVA, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) supremo Sharad Pawar, greeted Mr. Thackeray as the “Shiv Sena chief”.
