Despite growing bonhomie with the BJP and Shinde camp, especially after the collapse of the MVA government in the state, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Tuesday announced that the party will go solo in the upcoming BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
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 this announcement, MNS has put at rest speculations about joining hands with BJP or with Shinde camp.
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.
Meanwhile, Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) leader Prakash Ambedkar on Tuesday asked the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to clarify whether there would be an alliance between the VBA and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
The Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena is in talks with the VBA for a tie-up, but the former is already a constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition which includes the Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.
