Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray on Saturday hinted at a political rapprochement, nearly two decades after a bitter fallout and their dwindling political clout in Maharashtra.

The Devendra Fadnavis government’s decision to make Hindi a mandatory third language at the primary level in schools apparently prompted the Thackeray cousins to smell a political opportunity to pitch the Marathi sub-nationalism card.

The cousins have been virtually pushed to the political margins after the BJP’s landslide victory in the Assembly polls last year and areeyeing to latch on to the Marathi language issue to revive their fortunes.

Speaking separately, the cousins said they were ready to keep aside their “minor differences” and cometogether to protect the interests of the Marathi manoos and language.

“For Maharashtra and the Marathi people, the conflicts between us are secondary. The minor differences can be kept aside. Coming together is not a difficult task, but the real question is about the willingness to do so,” Raj Thackeray said in a podcast, making the first move. He went on to express his readiness to work with Uddhav.

Uddhav, while addressing a meeting of his party’strade union wing, said: “I am also ready to set aside the small quarrels and come together in the interest of the Marathi people.”

He, however, added a condition. “First, decide that you won’t invite home and serve food to those who act against Maharashtra’s interests,” Uddhav said, obliquely askinghis cousin not to hobnob with the BJP.

It was also a veiled reference to Raj hostingShiv Sena head and deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde at his residence.

Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had backed the NDAin the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsand also entered into a strategic understanding with the BJP in the Assembly polls later that year.

The cousins had a fallout in 2005 over the leadership of the Shiv Sena, founded by Uddhav’s father and Raj’s uncle Bal Thackeray.

Raj was widely seen as the political heir of Bal Thackeray but was deprived of the party’s leadership.

He left the Sena in 2006 and founded the MNS.

The state government’s decision to make Hindi a compulsory third language from Classes I to V seemed to have offered the trigger to the cousins to mend their ties.

Amid protests by the Opposition and other Marathi leaders, Fadnavis has defendedthe decision by stressing that Marathi is already a compulsory language and Hindi has been added as a “communication language”.