BJP warms up to one Thackeray to counter another

Mumbai The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be warming up to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray in an effort to counter his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray

Mumbai The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) may be warming up to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray in an effort to counter his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray.

Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis meets MNS chief Raj Thackeray at his Shivaji Park residence, in Mumbai on Friday (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

On Friday, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis met Raj Thackeray at the latter’s residence in Dadar for 1.5 hours in what was described as a courtesy call to thank him for his support during the Rajya Sabha and legislative council polls and for the Shinde-Fadnavis alliance during the Speaker’s election and trust vote.

After former chief minister Fadnavis took oath as Shinde’s deputy, Raj had written an open letter to him, lauding his commitment to his party. BJP and MNS leaders have indicated that they may be considering “seat adjustments” or tacit deals if not an outright political alliance to counter the Sena in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls. Any truck with the MNS may help the BJP counter the Shiv Sena’s aggression on the issue of the Marathi manoos.

There are speculations that Raju Patil, the sole legislator of the MNS from Kalyan (Rural), may be accommodated in the Shinde cabinet. MNS leaders have indicated that the party higher-ups may be negotiating an informal settlement with the BJP. “The split in the Sena may benefit us as people may feel disillusioned and let down by the Shiv Sena’s politics,” said a senior MNS leader. He, however, sounded a cautious note, saying it may be too early to write off the Sena, considering its deep roots. “No party is finished off due to events like this,” the MNS leader added.

Another MNS leader said that if not an alliance, an electoral adjustment with the BJP was possible. The leader also said that Shinde does not have much of a presence in Mumbai. “(Legislators like) Sada Sarvankar and Yamini Jadhav (who have defected to the Shinde camp) cannot be his group’s face in Mumbai… Shinde and the BJP need the MNS to keep the Sena out of power in Mumbai,” the MNS leader felt.

A senior BJP leader from Mumbai said that while the Fadnavis-Raj meeting could be described as a courtesy call, considering the party’s support for the BJP and Shinde, there was a possibility that if not an alliance, the two parties could enter into a seat-adjustment or an informal pact to defeat the Shiv Sena in the polls to the BMC and other civic bodies.

Another BJP leader pointed at how the MNS retained its pockets of support though the party was a far cry from the one that impressed in the 2009 Lok Sabha and state assembly elections. The MNS, which had launched its anti-outsider, anti-North Indian migrant protests the previous year, was blamed by the Shiv Sena and BJP for ensuring the defeat of its candidates in nine of the 11 Lok Sabha seats it had contested from. In the subsequent state assembly elections, which were the first that it had contested, the MNS won 13 seats in the assembly, of which six were from Mumbai. It is said to have damaged the prospects of the Sena-BJP alliance in another 53 segments.

However, a drift in the party and massive attrition from the ranks, saw its bench strength plummet to just one in 2014 and 2019. Despite its electoral reverses, the MNS has retained a section of its core voters. In the 2019 assembly polls, the MNS got significant votes in constituencies like Dindoshi (25,854), Bhandup (42,782), Kalina (22,405), Mahim (42,690), Vile Parle (18,406) and Sewri (38,350), which elected Shiv Sena MLAs. The MNS candidates were also runners-up in some of these seats. Hence, any formal alliance or informal truck between the BJP and the MNS may help the former in the prestige battle to the BMC, which is India’s richest civic body, control over which is crucial to the Shiv Sena’s hold over the megapolis.