While the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has batted for the Raj Thackeray-led MNS joining the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra for the upcoming local body elections, the Congress party, a key MVA ally, does not seem to be in favour of joining hands with the MNS, at least not at this stage with the crucial Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for next month.
Significantly, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP(SP), another constituent of the MVA, is also not averse to taking the MNS on board for the Maharashtra local body polls slated for December-January.
The Congress leadership’s reluctance to engage with Raj Thackeray is clearly linked to the Bihar elections, where the grand old party is not willing to risk the optics of being associated with the MNS due to its targeting of north Indians in Mumbai and some other parts of Maharashtra.
When asked whether a proposal for inducting the MNS into the MVA has been considered, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader in charge of Maharashtra, Ramesh Chennithala, said that no such discussion has taken place and that no such proposal had been mooted yet.
The Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC)’s president Harshvardhan Sapkal told The Indian Express that the decision about
the MNS’s inclusion in the MVA fold will be taken by the party’s central leadership. He said both Thackeray cousins, Uddhav and Raj, would have to discuss it with the Congress high command. “As of now we have asked the Congress’s local units to take a decision on the alliance for local body polls at the local level. They can decide whether to ally with anyone or not. But in case of alliance, it should happen with the parties within the MVA,” he said.
After nearly two decades of estrangement, Uddhav and Raj appear to have mended their fences in the run-up to the much-delayed local body polls. Their parties are now expected to contest the civic body polls together, especially in the high-stakes elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where the MNS is said to have some influence in about 70 of the total 227 seats.
Last Monday, Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said Raj was keen that the Congress should be part of a pre-poll alliance for the civic polls. On its part, the MNS distanced itself from Raut’s statement, saying that Raj will take a call on the matter.
Earlier this year, several incidents were reported from Mumbai and its adjoining belts about MNS workers’ alleged assault on non-Marathi speaking people. Raj himself said that Marathi should be made mandatory for all official purposes in the state and that people should not hesitate to slap anyone who refuses to speak Marathi.
Uddhav and Raj had then signalled their rapprochement as they came together to oppose the BJP-led Mahayuti government’s decision to introduce Hindi as a third mandatory language in the state’s primary schools. Following their joint campaign, the government was forced to scrap this move.
The Congress is wary of having any alignment with the MNS, mainly in view of the keen electoral battle in Bihar, where the Opposition Mahagathbandhan alliance – which includes the RJD and the Left besides the Congress – is taking on the incumbent NDA.
Apart from the MNS workers’ targeting of north Indian migrants in Maharashtra, for which several of them had been booked, Raj has also been known for his “hard-handed stance” against the Muslim community.
In the wake of Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s Bihar Yatra over issues like “vote chori” and SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls conducted by the Election Commission), the Congress is hoping to gain momentum in its campaign for the Assembly polls, which it does not want to get dented by any rows.
Sources said the Congress is even considering a proposal to go solo in the BMC polls, eyeing non-Marathi votes. The party feels that it may be reduced to a minor player in the event of the Sena (UBT) and the MNS tying up for the BMC elections.
“We are trying to strengthen the Congress organisation in Maharashtra at the grassroots level. Local body elections are an important opportunity for us. Forging a coalition would again mean that we will have to deny tickets to our local leaders for the sake of allies,” said a senior party leader.
The state Congress has been cautious over questions relating to the possibility of the MNS’s induction into the MVA. A few days ago, senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat joined a delegation of the Opposition leaders, which also included Raj, when they met the state election officials in Mumbai to demand “clean voter list” for the local body polls.
To repeated questions on the MNS’s induction, Thorat maintained that the delegation met the election officials over the “voter list fraud”. “This issue was first raised at the national level by our leader Rahul Gandhi. We joined the delegation because the issue has been raised by us. It is limited to this – there is no discussion of allying with the MNS in the local body polls,” he said.
In Pune, NCP (SP) leader Supriya Sule, however, did not rule out an alliance between the MVA and the MNS, questioning what was wrong with it. She, however, made it clear that senior MVA leaders will decide the issue after holding discussions.
