Raj Thackeray to campaign for NDA in Maharashtra

Mumbai: After announcing unconditional support to the Mahayuti in Maharashtra, MNS chief Raj Thackeray will now actively campaign for the BJP-led alliance in the Lok Sabha polls. He will hold a rally for the BJP candidate and union minister Narayan Rane on May 4.

Thackeray will address a rally at Kankavli in Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg constituency at 5 om on April 4. It will be his first public rally in the Lok Sabha polls in support of a Mahayuti alliance.

Both Thackeray and Rane enjoy cordial relations since their days in the united Shiv Sena. Rane left the Sena in 2005 to join the Congress, but later he switched his loyalties to the BJP. Thackeray soon followed Rane to quit the Sena in 2006, but he formed his own party - Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

Earlier this month, Thackeray, speaking in an annual Gudi Padwa rally of his party, had announced an ‘unconditional’ support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.

"The country needs strong leadership and I am extending my unconditional support to the Mahayuti solely for Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he had said.

Thackeray’s decision to support Modi and the Mahayuti was on the expected lines as he had met Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah at New Delhi in March sparking speculations that he might join the Mahayuti – an alliance of BJP, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction – in Maharashtra.

However, while offering support to Mahayuti, the MNS chief made it clear that his party will not contest the Lok Sabha polls. Instead, he asked MNS workers to start preparing for the state Vidhan Sabha elections, which are due later this year.