About Uddhav Thackeray Uddhav Thackeray (Marathi: उद्धव ठाकरे) (born July 27, 1960) is the executive president of the Shiv Sena, a Right wing, Marathi ethnocentric regional political party based in the Indian state of Maharashtra. He was given this role in 2004, taking over the mantle from his father and party founder, hard-line Hindu nationalist politician Bal Thackeray. Initially, Thackeray was not too keen to join politics, and instead was into art and nature. In spite of this, the party won the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation election in 2002 under his stewardship, and he was appointed the party working president in 2003. However, differences between Thackeray and former Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane culminated in the expulsion of Rane from the Shiv Sena. The biggest split in the Sena came when Thackeray and his cousin Raj Thackeray had a falling out, leading to Raj leaving the Shiv Sena in 2006 to form his own party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Since 2007, Thackeray has been campaigning for debt relief to farmers in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra where a large number of farmer suicides have taken place. Uddhav Thackeray is a wildlife enthusiast and photographer. He holds regular exhibitions of his photographs from forests, nature parks and sites of historic interest around the world. Thackeray's son Aditya is also a photographer and a budding poet with his first book of poems 'White and Black' published in May 2007.