‘Work for the cause of Marathi manoos’

Worried by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena eating into its traditional vote bank, the Shiv Sena has directed its corporators not to leave anything related to the Marathi manoos issue for the MNS to hijack.

Worried by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena eating into its traditional vote bank, the Shiv Sena has directed its corporators not to leave anything related to the Marathi manoos issue for the MNS to hijack.

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The Shiv Sena leader in the Assembly, Subhash Desai, discussed the MNS issue at a meeting held at Mayor’s Bungalow at Shivaji Park on Friday.

Sena leaders Diwakar Rawate, party secretary Anil Desai, Mayor Shubha Raul and newly elected member of Legislative Assembly Ravindra Waikar attended the meeting. Twelve corporators including Shailesh Phanse and Mangesh Satamkar were also present.

“We have been instructed to raise issues strongly and get them published in the media so that the MNS takes a backseat,” said a corporator on condition of anonymity.

Desai, however, denied having raised the issue at the meeting. “We did a review of the civic issues as the BMC’s (half) term is over now. We wanted to decide what should we do in the next half.”

The Shiv Sena had attacked south Indians in its formative years while the Raj Thackeray-led MNS targeted north Indians.

After power bills were hiked earlier this year, the Sena was the first to take up the cause. The MNS started late but gained an upper hand in the issue.