Despite growing bonhomie with the BJP and Shinde camp, especially after the collapse of the MVA government in the state, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on Wednesday announced that the party will go solo in the upcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections. MNS will field its candidates in all 227 wards and the party is expected to approach the voters on Hindutva and Marathi manoos planks. The announcement of MNS’ move not to tie up with any party was made by Raj Thackeray’s close confidant and former corporator Sandeep Deshpande.
With this, there will be practically four claimants for the Hindutva including the BJP, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, Eknath Shinde camp and the MNS. Besides, four will also try to lure the Marathi manoos which constitute about 27 per cent of Mumbai's population. With Wednesday's announcement, MNS has put at rest speculations about joining hands with BJP or with Shinde camp. However, the party has thereby hinted that it would like to increase its presence as per the revival plan and provide an alternative to Mumbaikars.
Deshpande chose to make a formal announcement at a time when a series of leaders including Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, BJP minister Mangal Prabhat Lodha had visited Raj Thackeray’s Shivtirth that had led to buzz about a possible up tie up for the BMC elections.
“As per the party chief Raj Thackeray’s directive, MNS will independently contest BMC elections by fielding candidates in all 227 seats. Besides, the party will also fight polls in other civic bodies too, on its own,’’ said Deshpande. “We are independent and the decision has been taken not to forge alliance with any party,” he added.
MNS' announcement will force the BJP, Thackeray faction and Shinde camp to tweak its poll strategies to get maximum votes. While the BJP and Shinde camp, which are expected to go together, in a bid to achieve Mission 2022 will make every effort to showcase how their Hindutva is genuine against Thackeray faction’s move to deviate from Bal Thackeray’s hardcore Hindutva. On its part, the Thackeray faction will project BJP’s “fake’’ Hindutva and how it was projected to gain power. Shinde camp is determined to reach out to the voters reiterating its commitment to pursue and practice Hindutva propagated by Bal Thackeray and Anand Dighe.
However, Raj Thackeray will reinvent himself by expanding his vistas from the Marathi Manoos card to a more macro Hindutva appeal.
