Maharashtra: Raj Thackeray meets Fadnavis in Mumbai

The Shiv Sena’s decision to ally with Congress and NCP is seen by many MNS leaders as a lifeline for the party to rebrand itself. In the recent Assembly polls, MNS had won only one seat while it had fielded 101 candidates.

When contacted, a MNS leader said: “BJP and MNS are not joining hands to make or break a government. They are entering into an understanding on national issues.”

A senior BJP leader, confirming that Fadnavis and Raj Thackeray met, said: “The oratorical skill of Raj will be useful for us to drive home the Hindutva campaign…”

Another BJP leader added: “The Shiv Sena will increasingly find itself in a catch-22 situation on its hard Hindutva agenda. To retain power in Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray will have to walk a tight rope to strike ideological balance with allies Congress and NCP on critical issues like Veer Savarkar, CAA and NRC among others.” Raj Thackeray, a one-time supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had fallen out with BJP since it came to power in 2014. In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the MNS chief was critical of BJP and had campaigned for the Congress-NCP in the state.

A senior BJP leader said, “In politics, there is no permanent friend or enemy. Moreover, even Sena, which was in alliance with BJP, had run a campaign against its top leaders for last five years.” A former BJP minister said, “Coming together with MNS will help BJP to grab the space left empty by Sena ahead of the local bodies elections… Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations will go to polls between 2020 and 2022.”