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Maharashtra : Balasaheb’s personal staff also included in Shinde faction, big split in Uddhav Thackeray’s Matoshree

Champa Singh Thapa, the personal staff of late Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray, on Monday joined the rebel Eknath Shinde faction. Balasaheb’s telephone operator Moreshwar Raje also joined the Shinde faction with him. As long as Balasaheb was in active politics, both were his personal staff at his home in Matoshree. On both of them joining Shinde faction, Shinde said that both of them decided to join his faction as they represent the ‘real’ Shiv Sena and are carrying forward the ideology of Balasaheb and Hindutva. He also said that Balasaheb used to talk clearly. People knew him well, so Raje and Thapa did not accept Shiv Sena’s alliance with Congress and NCP under Maha Vikas Aghadi.

27 years service
Champa Singh Thapa is originally from Nepal. Served Balasaheb for 27 consecutive years till his death in 2012. Thapa used to do many things like giving food and water to Balasaheb, giving medicines on time, always keeping clean towels ready. Often people used to talk to Thapa only to get their point to Balasaheb or to get the news of his discovery. While living in the company of Balasaheb, Thapa was also addicted to politics. When Nepal Shiv Sena was founded many years ago, Thapa was also made its chief patron.

Moreshwar Raje used to pick up the phone
The name of Balasaheb’s second personal staff is Moreshwar Raje, who is known as Raje in Shiv Sena. Raje was Balasaheb’s personal telephone operator in Matoshree. At that time there was no mobile era. Everyone had to call Matoshree’s landline number to contact Balasaheb. Then it was Raje who used to pick up the phone and give people’s messages to Balasaheb. At the behest of Balasaheb, he also used to call the person desired for him. His style was, ‘Hello main bungalow se raje bol raha hai, sahab baat karge’, after that the line was transferred to Balasaheb. All Shiv Sena leaders used to keep in touch with Raje to know Balasaheb’s mood before going to Matoshree or after being called.

Balasaheb’s PA with Uddhav
Apart from these two, another important person in Balasaheb’s personal staff was his personal secretary Ravi Mhatre. It was Ravi who used to plan Balasaheb’s meetings and meetings. He used to read newspaper news to them. On the instructions of Balasaheb, he used to clip important news. Those news were conveyed to the concerned responsible people with the remarks of Balasaheb. The branch heads of Shiv Sena acted as a bridge between department heads and Balasaheb. The same Ravi is with Uddhav Thackeray these days.

Recently, after a long time on the same platform, where Uddhav challenged the BJP leader and the Home Minister of the country, Ravi was seen pressing the file next to Shiv Sena’s group chief convention held at Nesco ground. Since then it is being said that perhaps Uddhav has started preferring Ravi over his controversial PA Milind Narvekar.