Uddhav Thackeray was born on 27 July 1960 as the youngest of politician Balasaheb Thackeray and his wife Meena Thackeray's three sons. He did his schooling in Balmohan Vidyamandir and studied photography for some time at Sir J.J. Institute of Applied Art.
Early political career
In 2002, Thackeray started his political career as campaign incharge of Shiv Sena in the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections where the party performed well. In 2003, he was appointed as working president of Shiv Sena. Uddhav took over as chief editor of party mouthpiece Saamana in 2006 and resigned in 2019 before becoming chief minister of Maharashtra. A split in Shiv Sena happened when his cousin Raj Thackeray left the party in 2006 to form his own party named Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. After the death of his father Balasaheb Thackeray in 2012, he led the party and got elected as Shiv Sena president in 2013, and under his leadership Shiv Sena joined the NDA government in Maharashtra in 2014.
Though Thackeray never took any constitutional post in his political career initially, however after a brief political crisis, on 28 November 2019 he took the oath as 19th Chief minister of Maharashtra after being elected as the president of the newly formed post-poll coalition Maha Vikas Aghadi.
Personal life
Thackeray is married to Rashmi Thackeray and has two sons, Aditya and Tejas. While elder son Aditya is the president of the Yuva Sena, younger son Tejas is believed to be studying in a college in Buffalo, New York. Tejas has maintained a very low profile unlike his father and elder brother. On 16 July 2012, Uddhav Thackeray was admitted to Lilavati Hospital after he reported chest pain. He underwent an angioplasty and all the three blockages in his arteries were successfully removed. Thackeray has taken a keen interest in photography and has exhibited his collection of aerial shots of various forts of Maharashtra at the Jehangir Art Gallery in 2004. He has also published photo-books Maharashtra Desh and Pahava Vitthal, capturing various aspects of Maharashtra and the warkaris during Pandharpur Wari respectively in the two books.
