Mumbai:
After the Shiv Sena, a son has risen also in Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Raj's son, 18-year-old Amit, made his maiden foray into an election campaign but preferred to remain a mute participant as he joined his father, mother Sharmila and sister Urvashi in the heat and dust of the MNS's street campaign Monday in Mumbai's eastern suburbs for the February 16 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.
The road show became an instant showpiece - many thousands of curious Mumbaikars flocked to catch a glimpse as Amit travelled in an open vehicle the whole day.
"Amit is a soft-spoken person, he speaks very less and prefers to concentrate more on his college studies," Suresh Gujjar, MNS vice-president and a close family friend who oversees Amit's activities, told IANS.
Mr Gujjar said Amit does not plan to deliver speeches for the present.
"He lets his father and other party officials do all the public speaking, but his presence is there," Mr Gujjar said.
A diligent student throughout his school and junior college days, Amit is in the first year of B.Com. from D.G. Ruparel College, Matunga.
"He will accompany his father for the next few days and then will be immersed in his university examinations due to start soon," Mr Gujjar revealed.
Amit's cousin Aditya - son of Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, the estranged cousin of Raj - has also plunged full-fledged into politicking for retaining the party hold on the BMC.
Asked by trailing media persons whether he planned to join politics, Amit paused and said: "I have not thought about it yet."
However, he said he was pleased by the huge response generated by Raj's presence in the campaign and found the experience of electioneering overwhelming.
Aditya, 21, who is also president of the Shiv Sena's youth wing, Yuva Sena, is campaigning independently, addressing meetings, small groups of youngsters or participating in road shows for his busy father Uddhav.
A post-graduate law student, Aditya has already campaigned in Pune along with his younger brother Tejas, in the past couple of days before turning to Mumbai and has been active in the party's youth and students' wing for the past one year.
Mr Gujjar said that he was not aware if Amit had visited his ailing grand uncle, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray recently after Raj Thackeray rebelled against the Shiv Sena in 2005 and formed the MNS.
However, Raj and Bal Thackeray remain very fond of each other and despite political bickering in public, Raj makes it a point to regularly inquire after his uncle's well-being.
Ten top municipal corporations across the state, including Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Nagpur, will go to the polls on February 16.