Uddhav Thackeray to leave hospital Monday

Mumbai, July 22 (IANS) Two days after Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray underwent an angioplasty to remove blockages in his artery, a party leader said that his hospital stay had been extended by a day till Monday.

"Yes, Uddhavji will be discharged now on Monday. But we do not know the reason he is being kept in the hospital for one more day," a party official told IANS Sunday.

Uddhav Thackeray's cousin and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray accompanied him along with other family members.

Doctors attending on Uddhav Thackeray, 51, remained tight-lipped as to why his discharge from hospital was delayed by a day.

His angioplasty procedure was undertaken Friday and all three blockages in his artery were successfully removed after a surgery. He was admitted to hospital July 16 after chest pain.

Sources in the MNS said that Raj Thackeray would not be able to accompany his older cousin on his way home after his discharge Monday.

Raj Thackeray, who drove the Shiv Sena executive president home in his car from hospital July 16, was himself suffering from severe back pain and advised complete rest, they claimed. But MNS leaders refused to confirm or deny this.

With Raj and Uddhav coming close almost six years after the younger Thackeray left the Shiv Sena to float the MNS, political analysts here have been discussing the possibilities of new permutations and combinations emerging.

However, both the Shiv Sena and the MNS have dismissed any political fall-out of the two cousins coming together, insisting that it was purely out of family relations.