To contest or not to contest the Maharashtra Assembly election is the question currently running in minds of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's (MNS) leaders and cadre. While the state polls likely to be held in October or November, Raj Thackeray-led MNS is yet to decide whether the party will contest the polls or not.
MNS functionaries told DNA that they had not received any feelers so far from their leadership on whether they will be contesting the polls. The code of conduct for the elections may be announced this week. A senior MNS leader told the DNA, "There is no decision so far on contesting the elections. There are political careers at stake that is the problem in the MNS staying out of a contest."
While MNS did not contest Lok Sabha elections Raj Thackarey had launched a surrogate campaign for the Congress-NCP and against the BJP- Shiv Sena. After Lok Sabha polls, Raj launched campaign against the use of EVM’s for the state assembly election. For which he met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
A senior MNS leader told the DNA, "The Lok Sabha experience makes it clear that canvassing for the Congress-NCP is not very helpful. Keeping away from contesting the polls by claiming EVMs can be manipulated will also not help as these machines are here to stay. At the most, we can seek greater transparency."
