Raj Thackeray has once again been active to breathe life into the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. On the one hand, Thackeray is announcing the candidates before the assembly elections, on the other hand, he is creating an atmosphere on the ground. However, there is a heated debate in political circles about Raj’s confused politics. In fact, Raj Thackeray is working on a strategy of single-handedly contesting elections in Maharashtra. However, he is not afraid to praise Prime Minister Modi.
Apart from this, Raj Thackeray is targeting Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray in every rally. Thackeray also warned the two leaders in a press conference on Saturday.
What strategy is Raj moving forward with?
Raj Thackeray has become active before the assembly elections in Maharashtra. Thackeray is currently on a tour of Marathwada and will proceed to Vidarbha from there. Thackeray has also announced 4 candidates of his party so far. Pandharpur, Shivdi, Latur Rural and Hingoli seats are the major seats where Thackeray has announced candidates.
Raj Thackeray’s party MNS is preparing to contest elections in Maharashtra alone. MNS will contest most of the seats in Marathwada, Konkan-Thane, Vidarbha and Mumbai regions.
While talking to reporters in Marathwada, Raj Thackeray has hit out at his brother and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray. He has said that Uddhav’s people attacked his vehicle. Raj also hit out at Sharad Pawar saying that he wants to burn Maharashtra.
Raj warned Sharad Pawar and Uddhav not to try to provoke me, otherwise the result would be bad. Thackeray praised Narendra Modi and said that our party will fight the elections alone. Amidst the praise of Prime Minister Modi, the question is being raised that why is Raj Thackeray not contesting the election with NDA?
Why Raj Thackeray is Confused, 3 Reasons-
1. Raj is politicizing the future
There are currently 6 parties in the National Democratic Alliance. NCP (Ajit), Shiv Sena (Shinde) and BJP are prominent among them. The issue of seat sharing between these parties is yet to be resolved. Ajith and Shinde are claiming 100 seats each. Both currently have 40-40 MLAs each.
BJP, which has 105 seats, has also claimed 160 seats. Apart from this, three small parties are also vying for the seats. There are 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra. In such a situation, the claims of all the parties have made the issue of seat sharing more complicated.
Raj Thackeray’s party has only one seat. If Raj claims now, his claim will be on less seats, so Raj has fielded candidates now, but he doesn’t want to close his door in NDA by praising Modi.
Raj is also keeping an eye on the upcoming situation. If NDA leaves any party then Raj will try to make space for himself there.
2. There is no match between India and NDA
During a rally in Marathwada, Raj Thackeray got angry when reporters asked him about contesting elections alone. Regarding NDA, he said that the parties there are not getting anything. Why should I go again? It is being said that the NDA party is not in favor of giving seat to Raj Thackeray.
Even during the Lok Sabha elections, there was talk of giving a seat to Raj Thackeray, but he did not get a single seat. Eventually Raj joined the NDA unconditionally. However, the arrival of Raj has not helped the NDA. Initially, Raj made several attempts to win the seat in the assembly elections, but he was not successful.
There was also talk of Raj Thackeray and Uddhav Thackeray coming together in Maharashtra, but even this khichdi could not be cooked. In such a situation, Raj has decided to contest the elections alone.
3. Also pay attention to Hindutva politics
Raj Thackeray has been focusing on Maratha and Hindutva politics since the beginning. It is being said that they want to retain this USP by praising Modi.
Also, Thackeray is focusing more on seats where the BJP will not contest. The four seats on which Raj has fielded candidates so far are considered strongholds of NCP and Shiv Sena. The chances of BJP contesting here are slim.
Thackeray is trying to woo the core BJP voters in these seats, which is why Thackeray is praising the Prime Minister.
MNS performance in Maharashtra elections
Raj Thackeray formed MNS in 2006 after breaking away from Shiv Sena. In the 2009 assembly elections, MNS fielded candidates on 143 seats. The party won 13 seats and polled 5.71 percent of the votes.
In the 2014 elections, Raj Thackeray fielded candidates on 219 seats, but the party won only one seat. Even in 2019, MNS won only one seat. In 2019, the party’s vote percentage dropped to 2 percent as compared to 2009.
