The third generation Thackerays seem to have a young challenger, in Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar's grandnephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar's son, Parth. On Thursday, he took the plunge into campus politics, by meeting the Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao to discuss the problems being faced by the students of the controversy-ridden University of Mumbai.

Parth, 28, has now stepped into an arena which has so far been dominated by the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). In the Sena and MNS camp, Uddhav Thackeray's son Aaditya and his cousin, Raj Thackeray's son, Amit have also been actively taking up students' issues with MU authorities, and at times with the Governor too.