Once the party that Congress-NCP resorted to, to beat the Shiv Sena, Raj Thackeray’s rebel outfit, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), is losing both support and steam
MNS first turned its heat on north Indian taxi drivers in 2008, when party workers vandalised taxis and attacked several drivers, accusing them of snatching jobs of ‘sons of the soil’
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In 2009, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray declared his party a “kingmaker” in the state’s politics. The year had marked a turning point in Raj’s political career. Despite MNS being only three years old, the party had marked a severe dent in Shiv Sena-BJP’s vote-bank to single-handedly win 13 crucial Assembly seats. Though, the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance once again managed to reach the majority mark after winning 144 seats, MNS had stood fourth in the state.
The water harvesting project that MNS launched in Shivaji Park is currently dysfunctional
Switch to the 2014 Assembly polls, and the party saw a sudden downfall. The man, who had once captured the collective imagination of much of Mumbai and catapulted it to unexpected glory, was now forced to settle on the fringe with just one seat to help his party save face.
Worried that the MNS will continue its losing streak in the BMC polls next month, many senior leaders have quit the party in the last two years.
While Raj had opposed the toll collection at toll plazas, he later asked supporters to stop the protest, upsetting party workers
While the party is confident of getting enough support from people to retain the seats, their descent is evident to many. Political experts blame it on Raj’s promising aggressive strategy that has not just lost steam, but also purpose, in the last few years.
A failed strategy of violence
To make its presence stronger in state politics, MNS first turned the heat on north Indian taxi drivers in February 2008. They vandalised taxis and attacked several drivers, accusing them of snatching jobs and livelihoods of the “sons of the soil”. After the violence, the police also detained 25 party workers.
Their aggressive strategy helped them in the BMC elections of 2012 with the party winning 28 seats in the corporation.
Following a good show in the civic elections, MNS continued to play on the strategy of violence.
Last year, as the city was grappling with potholes through the monsoon, MNS leader Sandip Deshpande had threatened to kidnap G-north ward officer if he failed to fix all the potholes within 24 hours in Dadar.
Raj’s move of holding Pakistani actors in Bollywood to ransom was another stunt in the recent past that kept bigwigs like Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan on the edge.
However, last year, the party suffered a major setback when Prakash Patankar, founder member and senior party leader from Dadar, quit to join the Shiv Sena. Patankar, who was a first time corporator (till 2012) from MNS in Dadar, had played a vital role in setting up a strong base for the MNS in the Sena dominated areas.
What went wrong?
According to party sources, many senior party leaders like former party MLA Bala Nandgaonkar, Mangesh Sangle, Shirish Parker, Aditya Rajan Shirodkar were left out from the decision-making process. Sandip Deshpande and Nitin Sardesai, who are said to be close to Raj, were the two leaders involved in finalising party election strategies.
Patankar confirmed this, saying, “Raj saheb sidelined many senior party leaders and showed trust in a handful.”
According to Patankar, MNS also had absolutely no clarity about the plans for the upcoming civic elections. “I had raised this issue with several leaders, including Raj saheb, but my complaints went unheard,” he said.
Targeting Sandip Deshpande, MNS corporator and group leader in the BMC, for tarnishing the party’s image, Patankar said, “Deshpande’s aggressive style of locking a BMC engineer in his office and threatening to kidnap a ward officer only earned the party a bad name. People don’t like this kind of stunt,” he said.
Further, in 2014, during the Lok Sabha elections instead of focusing on their campaign, the party went ahead and supported the BJP. At a time, when party candidates were seeking votes for themselves, the party chief was asking his supporters to vote for Narendra Modi. This hit the party hard and they lost all the seats.
Another issue was that while Raj had initially opposed toll collection at toll plazas across the state, he later asked supporters to stop the protest without any explanation.
Party never did enough
According to Patankar, MNS had also failed to fulfill most of the promises it had made in the 2012 civic elections, including relocating hawkers from Dadar, improving water supply in the Dadar-Mahim area and redevelopment of the fish market. “Also, some of the projects that it had launched, including free wifi and rain water harvesting system in Shivaji Park, have become dysfunctional,” Patankar added.
Abhay Raul, (37) a social worker in Prabhadevi area, said, “Our MNS corporator has not done enough work on the ground level. Several gardens like Khed Galli and Nardulla Tank have not been looked after.”
Abhijit Rane (40), who lives in Dadar and runs a printing press, said, “The party had promised to shift all the hawkers from the area and give them an alternate place. But, they went ahead and created selfie points in that area. Who will benefit from such a project?”
MNS workers lost faith
Sensing the uncertainty in the party in the last two years, many senior party leaders have quit the MNS. Ram Kadam, former MLA from Ghatkopar and Pravin Darekar from Magathane have quit the party and joined the BJP. In the last six months, five corporators have quit MNS and joined Sena and BJP. While Sukhada Pawar from Santacruz and Prakash Darekar from Dahisar joined BJP, Iswar Tayde from Kurla, Suresh Awale from Ghatkopar and Geeta Chavan from Bandra joined the Sena. According to sources, a few more sitting corporators are planning to leave the party if they don’t get the tickets they were promised.
'We will fight back'
While political observers have predicted MNS’ downfall in the BMC elections, Deshpande is confident of getting enough support from the people to retain the seats.
Admitting that the confidence of party workers is slightly shaken, Deshpande said, “We have recently started a ‘war room’ [like a helpline] in Dadar to resolve civic problems. When Raj saheb will start taking out public rallies, it will definitely make a difference for the party.”
Mocking the Sena and BJP, Deshpande said, “We have enough candidates for the elections. In fact, Sena and BJP are luring our workers since they are not getting strong candidates.”
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