As part of its strategy to get smaller parties to the fold of its NDA alliance in Maharashtra ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, the ruling BJP has again set its eyes on the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
Officially, the BJP-MNS alliance talks have been kept under wraps, with both sides exercising caution not to make it public unless they finalise their pact. What is however evident is that the state BJP leadership is going all out to mend fences with Raj’s outfit.
Some BJP insiders however indicated that they discussed the current political situation.
Significantly, Fadnavis met Raj shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with the BJP CMs in Delhi.
Following the BJP’s Karnataka election debacle, the party high command has urged its state units to start preparing for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections on a war footing. To expand the party’s support base and augment its vote bank, it has also directed the state units to identify and forge alliances with smaller parties so that they could achieve their ambitious targets.
In Maharashtra, the BJP’s key ally is CM Eknath Shinde-headed Shiv Sena faction, with the two parties set to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls together.
The BJP-Shinde Sena coalition will face a formidable challenge in the 2024 polls from the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, which comprises of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP.
Among the smaller parties, the Republican Party of India (RPI) headed by Union minister Ramdas Athavale is already a BJP ally, while Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, a former NDA ally, has decided to go solo in the coming polls.
The BJP is keen to get the MNS on its side especially for the coming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Assembly polls, given that the outfit still has some support base in certain pockets of Mumbai, Nashik and Pune. The MNS might have shrunk considerably and has been struggling to regain its salience in the state, but the BJP still sees in it a counter to the Uddhav Sena in various ways.
A senior BJP functionary said, “MNS is not a political force in Maharashtra and may not help in winning seats. But if BJP empowers it then MNS can become an alternative platform for those Uddhav Sena leaders and workers, who are disgruntled there or are denied tickets during the 2024 polls.”
The BJP camp also feels that Raj is still a “charismatic leader” and that due to his remarkable oratorical skills, his rallies draw huge crowds. The party’s poll strategists recall how Raj had played a notable role in building up an anti-NDA atmosphere through his public rallies ahead of the 2019 polls, which had then “benefited” the Congress and NCP.
Raj had floated the MNS after parting ways with the Shiv Sena on March 9, 2006. In the 2009 Assembly elections, the MNS won 13 of the state’s 288 seats. However, the party has been on a slide since then, winning only one seat in the 2019 polls. In the 2017 BMC elections, six MNS candidates were elected as the corporators, who later defected to the Sena.
The MNS’s politics was initially centred on the “sons of the soil” theme, which later shifted to the Hindutva ideology. Over the last few years there has periodically been a buzz about a possible BJP-MNS tie-up with both parties signalling their growing closeness, but it could not be finalised.
At his public rally in March this year, held on the occasion of Gudi Padwa ( Maharashtrian new year), at Shivaji Park, Raj attacked his estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray. He charged, “I had never spoken about it. But there was a well orchestrated plot to ensure my exit from Shiv Sena,” claiming that it was done even after his bid to extend his support for Uddhav’s elevation as the Sena executive president in the presence of his uncle and Uddhav’s father Bal Thackeray, the Sena founder. After Bal Thackeray’s demise in 2012, Uddhav took over as the Sena president.
Raj has charged that Uddhav was responsible for his exit from the Sena and that of several other senior Sena leaders’, including Union minister Narayan Rane.
By throwing its weight behind the breakaway Shinde-led Sena faction, the BJP succeeded in toppling the Uddhav-led MVA government in June last year. The BJP’s immediate target now is to bring the Uddhav Sena’s dominance in the BMC to an end. The saffron party believes the MNS could be used to dent the Uddhav Sena’s Marathi vote base in several BMC wards, which could also be replicated in the Assembly polls in various belts of Mumbai, Nashik and Pune.
A BJP strategist said, “If MNS can give tough fight to Uddhav Sena in 25-30 seats in BMC, it would boost
the Shinde-Fadnavis alliance’s prospects, which could be replicated in the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls too. After all, every ward or seat counts for BJP.”
An MNS leader said, “What really transpired in the meeting between Fadnavis and Raj cannot be revealed. But every party ensures its own growth. And for an alliance both parties have to arrive at mutually acceptable consensus.”
Tracking the BJP-MNS equations closely, an NCP leader said, “It is between BJP and MNS, so why should we comment. But everybody knows how Raj Thackeray had been critical of the Centre after the BJP’s Karnataka defeat, and over the RBI’s decision to withdraw Rs 2,000 note.”
Officially, the BJP-MNS alliance talks have been kept under wraps, with both sides exercising caution not to make it public unless they finalise their pact. What is however evident is that the state BJP leadership is going all out to mend fences with Raj's outfit. 
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