Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) finally gave permission to the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) to hold its public rally at Shahid Bhagat Singh Maidan, Abhyuday Nagar in Kala Chowki on April 23. Earlier, the BMC and the Election Commission had denied MNS permission to hold the rally in Mumbai. Raj had already addressed rallies in constituencies where opposition Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded candidates.
Though MNS has not fielded any candidate and is not contesting the Lok Sabha polls, his appeal to not vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party is goading undecided voters to vote for the opposition candidates, claimed MNS leaders. ,He added that this fear of shifting of votes to the opposition has brought troubles for Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and chanakyas in the BJP.
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“The BJP is trying to de-register the name of Raj Thackeray from the voters’ list and revoke his right to vote. When they failed to do so, they tried not to give MNS permission to hold rallies in Mumbai. Mumbai is considered as the bastion of Shiv Sena, and they fear that even a single rally of Raj would create trouble for BJP-Sena alliance.”
The state election commission has clarified that it gives permission for rallies to all political parties on the ground of rules and regulations. “The allegations by MNS is false and the election commission has not denied permission to the party,” the election commission official stated in a press release on Sunday.
