As MNS plans to chart a solitary political course, BJP keeps tabs

While Raj Thackeray’s oratory skills remain the MNS’s strong point, the party has failed to translate this into electoral dividends in recent years. Except for the 2009 Assembly elections when the MNS won 13 seats, its numbers have been pretty low. In 2019, the MNS won only one seat in the state Assembly. In the 2017 BMC elections, six MNS corporators were elected but they later defected to Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray). With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections scheduled this year, the MNS will be looking to regain lost ground in Mumbai, and in Pune and Nashik where it enjoyed a support base in 2009.

“The MNS is going to go solo. There is no question of having any alliance with BJP-Shiv Sena or Maha Vikas Aghadi,” a senior MNS leader said, requesting anonymity.

On Wednesday, for the first time, Raj Thackeray spilled the beans on how his exit from the Shiv Sena founded by the late Bal Thackeray was a well-orchestrated plan. His attack was directed at his estranged cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, whom he held responsible for his exit and that of other senior leaders, including Union minister Narayan Rane.

Raj Thackeray was also blunt in holding Uddhav responsible for the split in the Shiv Sena. If Eknath Shinde along with 40 MLAs revolted and walked out, it was due to Uddhav, he said. “It had to happen…when you don’t meet your leaders, elected members,” he added.

Raj Thackeray’s attack on Uddhav has pleased the BJP. With the saffron party’s Operation Lotus that engineered the split in the Shiv Sena not going down well with the ‘Marathi manoos’, party strategists in the state believe that Raj Thackeray’s speech on how he was forced to leave Matoshree will help alter the narrative.

“Raj Thackeray’s campaign will help create an atmosphere. His attack against Uddhav Thackeray some believe will help negate the sympathy he got after the Eknath Shinde revolt,” a senior Mumbai-based BJP leader said.

With the BMC polls around the corner, the BJP is also aware that if the MNS can give a tough fight to Shiv Sena (UBT) in 25 to 30 seats, it would help the Shinde-Fadnavis alliance.

Last year, almost every top BJP leader from the state, from Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to state party president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, had visited Raj Thackeray’s residence at Shivaji Park in Dadar. A BJP strategist had said then, “Why shouldn’t we maintain cordial equations with Raj Thackeray?”