Mumbai: On the occasion of his annual Gudi Padwa rally in Mumbai Tuesday, Raj Thackeray is set to announce his party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS’s) alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian New Year, begins Tuesday, and the MNS holds an annual function in which Raj Thackeray addresses his workers and decides the path of action for the next one year.
This year, the question is whether the MNS will be part of the state’s Mahayuti (ruling alliance of the BJP, Shiv Sena of CM Eknath Shinde and NCP of deputy CM Ajit Pawar).
In a teaser released by the party on X Friday, the voice of Thackeray promises to clarify the stand of the party after back-to-back meetings between the MNS chief, his son Amit and BJP leader Amit Shah in New Delhi last month, and with deputy CM and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai.
“I want to tell you what exactly happened. I don’t take steps based on elections but in the interest of Maharashtra,” says Thackeray in the teaser.
९ तारखेला शिवतीर्थावर या, नक्की काय घडलंय, काय घडतंय… हे मला आपल्याशी प्रत्यक्ष बोलायचं आहे ! #मनसे_पाडवामेळावा #MNSGudhiPadwaRally pic.twitter.com/OgImzXTSQX
— Raj Thackeray (@RajThackeray) April 5, 2024
On the eve of the rally Monday, speaking to the media, Fadnavis said he hoped the MNS would support the Mahayuti alliance. “We have been in talks with the MNS for the past few days. And since Raj Thackeray has taken a stand on Hindutva, we have got closer. And so, we expect him to support Narendra Modi. We hope he will clear his stand tomorrow.”
MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar also told ThePrint that everything will be cleared by Thackeray.
“I don’t know what is there in his mind. But yes, a lot of speculation has been going around regarding our party. Just wait for the rally where he will clear his stand,” he said.
The MNS had refrained from contesting the 2019 Lok sabha elections. However, Thackeray had addressed multiple rallies targeting the Modi-Shah duo.
Also Read: ‘NCP is Maharashtra’s BSP’ — what BJP stands to gain from Ajit Pawar’s switch ahead of 2024
MNS’s changing stand
In almost every alternate election, the MNS has swung from aggressively campaigning for the BJP or against it, coming up with compelling justifications for its stance each time.
Since its formation in 2006, the MNS got good electoral success in the 2009 Maharashtra election and 2012 civic polls. But since then, it has been a downward journey for the party.
In 2014, Thackeray had supported Modi’s candidature for PM. But he could get electoral success neither in the Lok Sabha nor assembly polls later that year.
In 2019, he went against the BJP in the hope of partnering with the undivided NCP and the Congress but due to the latter’s resistance, he could not be part of their alliance, though his campaign “lav re to video” (play that video) targeting the Modi government garnered a lot of eyeballs and drew huge crowds. The MNS tasted failure in the state election that year.
Post-2019, the MNS again began cosying up to the BJP after the formation of the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the undivided Shiv Sena, undivided NCP and the Congress. He even changed tunes and started espousing the Hindutva cause.
It is now being speculated that the MNS might join the Mahayuti and negotiations are on for at least two seats for the MNS — Nashik and Mumbai South.
However, there is disagreement within the state’s ruling alliance over these two seats, with Shinde’s Shiv Sena wanting to fight the Nashik seat, and the BJP and NCP of Ajit Pawar wanting state minister Chaggan Bhujbal to contest it, according to sources in the Shiv Sena.
Even on Mumbai South seat, a tussle is on between Shinde’s Sena and the BJP over who would fight the seat, they said.
Some outfits are also opposed to having Raj Thackeray along with the BJP because of his evident anti-north Indian stand. The MNS in its early days targeted north Indians and Gujaratis in Mumbai, even at times resorting to vandalising Gujarati signboards atop restaurants and shops and launching violent attacks against migrants from north Indian states.
Hence, it was never announced whom the MNS would partner with.
“For the last few weeks, a lot of discussion has been going on regarding our party. A lot has been speculated regarding our role in the elections. I was watching this quietly. Even you would have been constantly asking questions. So now is the time to talk about it. What exactly happened, what is happening, it needs to be told. Come to Shivteerth (Mumbai’s Shivaji Park) on 9 April, I want to talk to you personally,” says Thackeray in his party’s video teaser.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: BJP’s friend in 2014, foe in 2019, potential ally in 2024 — the many flip flops of Raj Thackeray