BMC polls: Uddhav Thackeray rejects MNS proposal

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) faced embarrassment after Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray rejected the alliance proposal of  Bala Nandgaonkar, MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s trusted aide, for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls.

After the saffron alliance split, Mr Nandgaonkar on Sunday evening went to Mr Thackeray’s residence, Matoshree, with a proposal for alliance between MNS and Shiv Sena, suspicions of which were already doing rounds. However, putting the possibilities of an alliance to rest, Mr Thackeray said, “We have decided to contest all the elections in the state independently and on our own strength. There neither existed a proposal nor there was any discussion regarding any alliance with anyone.” This response would surely rattle MNS, which after a decade-long fight with the Shiv Sena on all fronts, including BMC, Assembly and Lok Sabha, made the first move of teaming with Shiv Sena.

Raj Thackeray had left Shiv Sena after a major showdown with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray over he being given the responsibility of the party. Yet, he chose to send his party leader Mr Nandgaonkar, a former minister in the Sena-BJP led government who shifted his allegiance to MNS in 2006, for proposing an alliance with Sena. Mr Nandgaonkar said, “I met Subhash Desai at Matoshree. We (MNS) are demanding seats only that we have won in the last election held in 2012. But Sena has not given us a positive response. However, we will wait till the last day of filing nominations.”

Interestingly, both Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had predicted that after the split, the Thackeray cousins might come together. In its party workers’ meet at NEC, Goregaon on Saturday, BJP city chief Ashish Shelar had raised doubts over both, Sena having tie or indirect alliance for coming polls.

On Monday, however, Mr Uddhav Thackeray clarified his stand but avoided giving too many details. He said, “There is no discussion of an alliance anywhere. I do not have proposal from anyone.”

Mr Thackeray also reacted to BJP national chief Amit Shah’s remarks on break-up in Sena-BJP alliance. Mr Shah in an interview to one news channel had said, “There is no break up with Shiv Sena. We are having friendly fights there in Maharashtra”. Mr Thackerey reacted to this  rather strongly. “What is this friendly fight? They never talked about it at the time of Assembly elections. Why now?” asked Mr Thackerey. “We are contesting on our own across the state. There is no friendly match with anyone,” he added.