Maharashtra Navnirman Sena putting up a candidate in seats where a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate is contesting continues to be highly remote. Political aides close to MNS chief Raj Thackeray confirmed to Mediaeye that Raj Thackeray will honour former BJP president Nitin Gadkari’s appeal to stay away from the general poll fray as his jumping into the competition would not only help the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine to out-perform the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the general elections.
Raj Thackeray who is a master political strategist even though did not make a commitment to Gadkari, all the same he agreed in Maharashtra principal that he would though not put up a candidate in the seat where the BJP is contesting but will continue to politically battle it out with the Sena in this parliamentary elections.
Raj Thackeray around three weeks back had come out openly to support BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi but with political shrewdness also in a highly rough manner ruffled the feathers of BJP’s poll alliance Shiv Sena by reiterating that he will put up candidates in constituencies where Sena is contesting.
Much to the annoyance of Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray who has an enormous political axe to grind with his cousin Uddhav, did not barge on his assurance despite Gadkari’s political rival camp in the BJP led by BJP’s national Vice President Gopinath Munde taking pot shots at Gadkari playing the role of an unofficial emissary for the BJP.
Despite Uddhav creating a furore over Gadkari extending BJP’s hand for MNs support, the BJP central leadership chose to send to confusing signals in the midst of the ongoing polling campaign.
So much so that MNS candidate from Yavatma-Washim Lok Sabha constituency had reportedly put up posters seeking votes in Modi’s name which the MNS subsequently denied having a hand in displaying the posters. Patil and MNS outright denied having either indulged in seeking votes in Modi’s name or prinited such posters. A senior MNS leader in Mumbai said,” We were bewildered to learn that posters appeared in Yavatmal-Mashim streets, claiming that MNS was supporting Modi’s candidature for the prime minister’s post. We are the midst of probing the people behind the printing and putting up the poster. Nevertheless, Raj Thackeray recently had publicly supported Modi as prime minister, but would not have indulged in putting up such these misleading posters,”
The BJP though instantly reacted against MNS putting up these controversial posters, but all the same its leadershp threaded cautiously while raising objections through a written complaint filed with the state Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampat. While avoiding not mentioning MNS as misusing Modi’s name to seek votes, BJP’s Election Management Committee chief Shrikant Bharatiya underlined that some political parties and individuals were trying to cause undue influence and were indulging in corrupt practices as per provisions of the Representation of The People Act by using banners and posters with BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. "An impression is (being) created for a common man that there is (an) alliance between the BJP and individuals or political parties. It was an attempt to lure voters and misguide them to vote for them as if the said political party is associated with us. In the complaint, BJP demanded firm action the political outfit for misusing Modi’s name for electoral gains.
It maybe recalled that in the 2009 polls, MNS fielded candidates in 11 Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik, Pune and Aurangabad. Though it did not win a single seat, the party finished second in some of these seats and polled over one lakh votes in each of them.
A glaring fact is, MNS publicly flirting with the BJP and the latter merely only mildly denying estalishing an unwritten pre-poll understanding with the former, is giving sending fear doing the spine of Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. The fear in Sena’s mind is that if it (Sena) fails poorly in the Parliamentary polls, BJP is likely to open the doors for entering into an alliance with MNS in the state polls and then BJP will either ditch the Sena or force it (Sena) into accepting MNS in the saffron alliance.
“The final outcome of the Parliamentary polls will decide not only Uddhav’s future political fate but also Munde and Gadkari’s political careers. If the BJP-Sena emerges victorious in the elections then Gadkari’s brand image will take a massive beating and if the saffron alliance which hinges on the long-standing political equation between Uddhav and Munde fails to create a dent, it will be a victory for Gadkari who is keenly pursuing to get MNS to establish a political alliance with the BJP and strengthen the saffron alliance.
