Raj Thackeray reorganises MNS, appoints Mumbai chief for the first time

MNS chief Raj Thackeray appointed Sandeep Deshpande as Mumbai chief, aiming to revamp the party for upcoming BMC polls after last year's poor performance.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, at a function held on Sunday, announced the appointment of former corporator Sandeep Deshpande as the Mumbai chief of the party. After a terrible performance in the assembly polls held last year, Thackeray decided to reorganise the MNS for the BMC polls, which are expected to be held this year. This is the first time that Raj Thackeray has decided to appoint a chief for the Mumbai unit.

Former MNS Corporators Sandeep Deshpand (Hindustan Times)

Deshpande, who lives in Dadar, was the MNS candidate against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Aaditya Thackeray from the Worli assembly constituency. He was disillusioned after the debacle of the party in the assembly polls, and sources claimed that he would have left the MNS had he not been given an important position like this. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Deshpande said, “My focus is to win the BMC elections. This is also my mission.”

Raj also announced three deputy chiefs for Mumbai at the function. Yashwant Killedar, who is in charge of the party’s Deepavali celebrations, will oversee the party’s work in the island city. Kunal Mainkar, a dedicated MNS worker who has been with Raj Thackeray since the beginning, has been given the task of supervising the party’s work in the western suburbs. Yogesh Sawant will look after the work in the eastern suburbs while Raj’s son Amit Thackeray will coordinate with all the MNS shakha pramukhs of Mumbai. The MNS has been seeking an alliance with the BJP in the civic polls.

Speaking at the function, Raj Thackeray said, “We have reorganised and decided to have a chief for the Mumbai unit and three deputy chiefs.” Raj said that Bala Nandgaonkar would look after the functioning of the gat adhyakshas, Nitin Sardesai would supervise the vibhag adhyakshas and Amit Thackeray would oversee the functioning of the shakha adhyakshas or pramukhs. Avinash Jadhav, Amit Panse and Raju Patil will look after the functioning of the Thane unit.

At the function, Raj declared that most politicians were trying to deflect attention from core issues by speaking on trivia like Khokya aka Satish Bhosale in Beed. “There are many Khokya bhais (crorepati) in the assembly,” he said.

Raj Thackeray won 13 seats in the 2009 assembly elections, one each in 2014 and 2019 and none in 2024. In the civic elections in 2017, the MNS won seven seats in Mumbai.

The Shiv Sena and its rival Shiv Sena (UBT) have similar organisational structures. The Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS are offshoots of the parent party formed by Bal Thackeray in 1966.

The Shiv Sena is directly supervised by Eknath Shinde and his son Shrikant. Some leaders in the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray have suggested that the party also appoint a Mumbai unit chief so that they can have better machinery to win the BMC elections later this year.