Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray has assured all students waiting to appear for the Maharashtra Board class 12 exams starting on February 21 that their schedule will not be affected by the strike on February 20 and 21.

“The Shiv Sena will ensure that no student is affected by the strike. We are backing only the industrial strike and the exams will take place peacefully as scheduled,” Thackeray said in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna on Saturday.

He added that parents and students should not panic. “The 10 and 12 class exams are important milestones and we appeal to all the people participating in the strike to support them… all shops and establishments will be closed during the strike. However we will ensure that essential services and transport will be available as usual,” Thackeray said.

Before the two-day strike, Thackeray will lead a workers’ rally from Jijamata Udyan to Azad Maidan on February 18. The rally is a curtain raiser for the support that the Sena will extend to the nationwide union strike by employees of banks, steel companies, insurance firms and other sectors.

Issues like price rise, increasing unemployment, especially for farm labour in drought-hit areas, social security to unorganised workers, avoiding contract workers for regular jobs and using land given for industrial purposes for industries only will be among those raised by the workers on strike.