Raj Thackeray to campaign against saffron tie-up

Mumbai: While the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) will not be contesting the Lok Sabha polls, its chief Raj Thackeray is likely to campaign aggressively to ensure the defeat of the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state.

The party a few days ago announced that it would not contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state. But Mr Thackeray is expected to address five to six rallies this month in favour of the Opposition alliance of Congress-NCP. He is likely to campaign for top opposition candidates like Congress state chief Ashok Chavan, senior Congress leader Sushilkumar Shinde, and NCP’s Parth Pawar.

Although the Congress opposed MNS’ entry into the opposition alliance, Mr Thackeray will also campaign for the party’s candidates. However, no candidate of the Congress-NCP will be allowed to share the dais with Mr Thackeray, said sources.

Mr Thackeray is set to hold rallies in Solapur, Nanded, Maval, Baramati and Satara constituencies, party sources said. Congress leaders Mr Thackeray may also canvas in Nashik, Mumbai north-east (Sanjay Patil), Mumbai north-central (Priya Dutt) and Mumbai north (Urmila Matondkar), the MNS leader said.

While, Mr Thackeray is not likely to canvas openly for the Opposition alliance, his speeches, which will target the BJP-Sena alliance, will help the opposition parties to garner votes, he added.

The MNS, which unsuccessfully contested nine seats in its previous outing, had polled 708,010 votes i.e. 1.47 per cent of the total valid votes.

“In previous election, the MNS had contested fr-om certain seats and declared outside support to the BJP. It had polled propitious votes, not adequate to win a seat, but certainly something to bridge the deficit,” the sources said.