Raj in NDA fold helps BJP but challenges lie ahead

Mumbai: Months after he came out of the tutelage of charismatic politician and Shiv Sena’s founder Balasaheb Thackeray, firebrand Raj Thackeray founded the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on 9 March 2006 —exactly 18 years ago.

In the last two decades Raj has seen many ups and downs including his differences with his mentor’s son and his cousin Uddhav Thackeray, who later became the Chief Minister, only to be toppled by the BJP through rebel Eknath Shinde.

Raj was very clear 18 years ago - a progressive outlook and welfare of the Marathi manoos. But in the process, the North Indian community became the MNS target.

Now, with Raj set to join the BJP-led NDA grouping, the national saffron party gains a lot but also certain challenges.

The 2009 Vidhan Sabha elections was landmark for Raj — his party had polled as many 5.71 per cent (25,85,597 votes) of the total votes polled. In the seats it had contested, the MNS had polled 11.88 per cent votes.

In the Lok Sabha polls held earlier in 2009, though the MNS did not win any of the 11 seats it had contested in the 2009 LS polls, its candidates had polled more than one lakh votes in as many as nine constituencies – a development that had contributed in a big way to the Sena-BJP alliance's debacle in the state.

In August 2011, he undertook a nine-day tour of Gujarat and admired the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his model of development, post 2014, he had emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Modi.

However, in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the MNS put up a miserable performance, Not only did all its 10 candidates lose their deposits, the MNS vote share was reduced from 4.6 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls to just 1.5 per cent, even lower than Aam Aadmi Party’s 2.2 per cent, Bahujan Samaj Party’s 2.6 per cent, and much smaller Swabhimani Paksha’s 2.3 per cent.

In 2014 Vidhan Sabha polls his party won just one seat and so as in the subsequent 2019 Assembly polls.

However, before that, during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Raj did not field any candidate and addressed a dozen rallies hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his close aide Amit Shah. In his rallies, Raj, while refraining from telling whom to vote for, sought the ouster of Modi-Shah. Thackeray's - 'lav re to video' (play that video) instructions to play video targeting the Modi-Shah duo became popular.

For Raj, it was time to have an introspection - and on 23 January, 2020, on the birth anniversary of Balasaheb, he adopted the Hindutva approach and also launched his son Amit into politics. He raked up the issue of loudspeakers in mosques.

The only concern is the issue Raj's past when he had targetted the North Indian community.