MNS banks on Hindutva aggression to ally with Shinde-BJP for BMC polls

With nativist and right-wing politics polarised within Shiv Sena and the Eknath Shinde faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sharing power, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is desperate for relevance

With nativist and right-wing politics polarised within Shiv Sena and the Eknath Shinde faction and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sharing power, Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is desperate for relevance. It has now upped the ante on Hindutva, which party leaders admit is also an attempt to show their “nuisance value” and get the ruling alliance strike a deal with them in the crucial Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.

Chief minister Eknath Shinde with MNS chief Raj Thackeray at his residence in Dadar on Thursday. HT Photo

A tacit understanding with the MNS could be a win-win situation as chief minister Shinde and his deputy Devendra Fadnavis may use one Thackeray (Raj) to challenge another (Uddhav) in Sena’s strongholds.

“Regardless of whether we want to ally with anyone or not, we must prepare for the polls,” an MNS leader said, adding that if not a formal alliance they were looking for an informal seat adjustment with Shinde and the BJP to trounce Sena. “They will ally with us only if we show them our strength. Why will they join hands unless they feel we are a threat to them?”

The growing proximity between the two sides is evident from a string of visits by leaders from the ruling camp like BJP’s state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bavankule, national secretary Vinod Tawade, and union minister of state for railways Raosaheb Danve Patil to Raj’s Dadar residence. The latest to join the list was Shinde who met the MNS chief on Thursday, triggering speculations.

The MNS leader pointed to how the party had retained its core support in Mumbai despite the steady slide in its electoral fortunes. In 2019, it got significant votes in assembly segments like Dindoshi (25,854), Bhandup (42,782), Kalina (22,405), Mahim (42,690), Vile Parle (18,406), and Sewri (38,350).

“If the BJP or the Shinde group feels we will eat into just Sena’s votes, they are wrong. We may also damage them… in the 2017 elections, the presence of the MNS and the BJP worked to the advantage of Sena in areas like Dadar-Mahim. The BJP may have to compromise if it wants to keep Sena away from power,” he said.

Another MNS leader too admitted that they were trying to prove their “nuisance value” for a political opening. He cautioned that while a “behind the curtains” understanding with the BJP could make sense in the short term, the party needed to be wary about the BJP’s intent to eliminate all other parties.

A BJP legislator, however, said a seat-sharing formula between them would hardly leave any space for the MNS. “The MNS may attract those Marathi voters who are upset at Sena. The BJP will get some of Sena’s pro-Hindutva votes by itself and some through Shinde,” he said.

Shinde and the BJP have taken over the entire anti-Sena political space in Mumbai, a leader from Uddhav Thackeray’s party said.

“Hence, the MNS may try to exacerbate the divide on issues like Maharashtrians versus non-Maharashtrians and Hindus versus non-Hindus. There are indications that a section of the minorities, especially the Muslims, may vote for Sena as they find it best poised to defeat the BJP. In such circumstances, any aggressive propaganda by the MNS on Hindutva may lead to polarisation and drive a section of these auxiliary and fence-sitting voters away from us,” the leader said.

A legislator from the Shinde group said while they had not yet begun formal negotiations with the MNS, they were not averse to any adjustments. “Anything can happen if we reach a common ground. Remember that one plus one always works out to be two,” the leader said, adding that the MNS aggression on Hindutva was aimed at laying the ground for this.

At a public meeting on August 23, Raj gave clear indications of the MNS’s future course when he supported former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma and questioned why no action had been taken against those making derogatory comments against Hindu deities. This shift to Hindutva will blunt the memories of the party’s previous aggression towards Hindi-speaking migrants in Mumbai and elsewhere in the state, and also serve as a face-saver for any eventual understanding with the BJP, which has a strong base among the city’s non-Maharashtrians.

The MNS has also announced a campaign against halal meat, an issue close to the hearts of Hindu right-wing leaders.

On Saturday, party vice-president Yashwant Killedar attacked the “monopoly of halal products (like meat)” and alleged that consumers were being “indirectly forced” to eat halal meat by ensuring that jhatka meat was not available. “We respect their religion, but they cannot force us to follow their religious norms,” Killedar said.

In 2017, the MNS saw its seats in the BMC plummet from 28 to just seven in the 227-member house. Of these, six corporators staged a daylight coup and joined Sena. This is a far cry from the 2009 assembly elections when the MNS won 13 seats of which six were from Mumbai. Then, the MNS was just three years old, having been launched by Raj, who had left Sena in 2005 at the culmination of a bitter intra-party war with first cousin and incumbent Sena president Uddhav. Today, the party has just one MLA — Raju Patil from Kalyan (Rural).