Thackeray son’s outburst puts spotlight on Smita

Smita Thackeray, the controversial daughter-in-law of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, is in the news yet again. Formally divorced from the Se...

Smita Thackeray, the controversial daughter-in-law of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray, is in the news yet again. Formally divorced from the Sena chief’s second son, Jaydev, on October 27, her future in the Thackeray household hangs in the balance following her former husband’s outburst to a TV news channel that, post-divorce, she must give up the Thackeray surname.

‘‘After our divorce, she is no longer a member of the Thackeray family,’’ said Jaydev, who is himself estranged from his father and younger brother. ‘‘She should not use the Thackeray name now,’’ he told The Indian Express.

Predictably, she’s turned incommunicado since he spoke on the subject.

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A graduate from Ruparel College in Mumbai, Smita began as a passport office receptionist, who fell in love with and married Jaydev Thackeray almost two decades ago.

Speaking about the break-up of her marriage in an interview to The Indian Express last year, she had said: ‘‘It was difficult to acknowledge I was having problems. We married for love, so how could we be having problems? My late mother-in-law always reminded me that I must not walk out of the house. So I stayed on and my husband moved out.’’