Hyderabad, July 7 -- It is a family reunion in Maharashtra with a huge political impact with the estranged cousins of the Thackeray family getting together. Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray buried their hatchets on Saturday. They did so in the presence of thousands of teary-eyed followers who had a common cause: the interests of the Marathi-speaking population of the state. They cheered them on when the cousins, their respective wives, and children, posed for a picture.

There have been hints aplenty about the two coming together for politics with the wrapper of politics but even now it is unclear how the two cousins would work out their intra-family and inter-political dynamics.

Will they merge? If they did, what would be the internal...