Hinduhrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray
Bal Keshav Thackeray aka Balasaheb Thackeray was a towering personality who won the hearts of entire Maharashtra. He was born on 23 January 1926 in Pune. He was the founder of the Shiv Sena party in Maharashtra, a politician and a cartoonist. He was also the founder and chief editor of the Marathi daily Saamna. Balasaheb's personality was intense, his nature of affection for his people, his love for them is difficult to express in words. He established the Shiv Sena party and carried out the task of uniting the Marathi people in Maharashtra.
Balasaheb's wise and visionary eyes recognized the issue of Hindutva and he formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and set the stage for coalition politics. The period from 1995 to 2000 was a golden period for Shiv Sena-BJP. In the country and also in Maharashtra, the politics of the Sena-BJP got an unprecedented vote of the people.
Balasaheb was committed to the social and physical development of Maharashtra by keeping many dreams like a chain of Matoshree old age homes in the state, concessions for the elderly, free houses for slum dwellers, flyovers in Mumbai and the Mumbai-Pune expressway. Many of these schemes were implemented and new avenues for the development of Maharashtra were opened.
Balasaheb, who expressed such passionate and aggressive thoughts in politics, was in his personal life, very loving and family-oriented.