Friends turned foes? BJP launches signature campaign to counter MNS

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are launching signature campaigns to counter each other in Mumbai. The BJP has launched a campaign called 'Ek Sahi Bhavishyasaathi' to garner support from youngsters for schemes launched by the central government, while the MNS's campaign 'Ek Sahi Santapachi' aims to vent anger against defections by elected representatives and the BJP's attempts to engineer splits in political parties.

Mumbai: After hobnobbing for nearly four years, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are squaring up by launching signature campaigns to counter each other.

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The BJP on Monday launched a campaign ‘Ek Sahi Bhavishyasaathi’ (a signature for the future) among youngsters in retaliation to the MNS’s ‘Ek Sahi Santapachi’ (a signature for outrage) started last week after the split in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Launched by Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar in Ruia College, the campaign was held in seven colleges across the city on Tuesday and will continue for a week. Through this campaign, the party aims to garner support from youngsters for the schemes launched by the central government.

Projecting youth related schemes launched by the Modi government, the campaign sought suggestions and responses from the college goers.

“Other parties such as Congress, NCP, MNS are interested only in politics, whereas BJP is the party which has been truly engaged in issues related to the people. The proposed IIM (Indian Institute of Management) in Mumbai is a part of Modi government’s youth-oriented decisions,” said Shelar.

The MNS’s signature campaign was undertaken across the state. It had appealed to people to sign posters to vent their anger against defections by elected representatives and the BJP’s attempts to engineer splits in political parties.

The MNS would play its chief Raj Thackeray’s speeches near the posters to be signed. The campaign culminated in an exhibition of these posters, brought from various parts of the state, at Shivaji Park on Sunday. Thackeray had attended this event.

Many believe that the BJP’s signature campaign is in retaliation to the MNS’s campaign.

“It (signature campaign) was necessary as the MNS has started taking a stand against us. He (Thackeray) has off late criticised the BJP and the Modi government, especially after Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar joined the government,” said a BJP leader.

“It is, we believe, an attempt to showcase his nuisance value to increase bargaining value. It is imperative for us to take cognizance of this as the MNS has its own vote bank, which could be useful to us in increasing our vote percentage or damage Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena,” added the BJP leader.

Thackeray had been vocal against prime minister Narendra Modi during the 2019 Lok Sabha election and his campaign Lav Re Toh Video (please play the video) drew a huge response. The BJP, however, won 42 out of 48 seats in alliance with the then undivided Shiv Sena.

After a notice from the Enforcement Directorate in August 2019, Thackeray is believed to have softened his stand against Modi and the BJP.

Kirtikumar Shinde, general secretary, MNS said, “First of all, it was not a campaign against the BJP per se. It was against all other parties too, including both the factions of Shiv Sena, the rebel faction of the NCP, Ajit Pawar etc.

“It was a platform given to people to express their outrage after the splits in these political parties. Rajsaheb called it a slugfest and the people also felt the same way about it.

“If the BJP has taken cognizance and felt the need to launch a counter campaign, it only reinforces the fact that the MNS knows the pulse of the people.”

Shinde said that their campaign was undertaken in villages, tehsils in rural parts and at ward levels in cities.

“A select few hundred posters of signatures were put up at the exhibition, though thousands were signed across the state,” he said.