MNS Chief Raj Thackeray strikes a chord but question mark remains on party’s revival

MNS chief Raj Thackeray during a protest rally in Mumbai on Thursday. Prashant Nadkar

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray made a concerted attempt Thursday to reconnect with the Mumbaikars riding the emotive plank of ‘sons of the soil’. However, if the old, tried-and-tested Marathi plank will help in revival of the organisation that finds itself on the back foot since the 2014 Lok Sabha and assembly elections, and a major debacle in the 2017 Mumbai civic polls, remains to be seen.

The regional party that has always relied on Raj’s personal appeal to bring electoral dividends reckons that street shows alone will not help it sail through in the larger election battle ahead in 2019.  Several leaders and workers spoken to admitted Raj needed to focus on organisational base. “When it comes to political shows, Raj remains unbeatable. He often knows the art of packaging the speeches and delivering it in style. But failure of the leadership to focus on organisational base remains a greater challenge electorally,” said an MNS leader.

The political graph of MNS that came into being in 2006 has shown a sharp decline since the previous elections. In 2009, MNS had won 13 seats in the Legislative Assembly. In 2014, its strength came down to just one seat. It faced a major drubbing in the 2017 civic polls of Mumbai and Nashik too. Apart from flashing the anti-migrant-pro-Marathi plank, Raj appears to have made up his mind now to go against Prime Minister Narendra Modi hammer and tongs. In a clarion call to the people during the street rally Thursday, he said, “It is high time we threw Modi out of power.”

Between 2006 and 2017, Raj had always praised Modi for his development politics. Often in the past, after visiting Gujarat on invitation from Modi as the then chief minister, the MNS chief had publicly endorsed his vision. On Thursday, however, he said, “All that was shown to me was false.” “Raj (Thackeray) has given a clear signal that he is on a war-path with the government at the Centre. His criticism of Modi shows his changed mindset. His attempt to take the centre stage was successful. In terms of content and context, he made the right noises keeping in mind the constituents — sons of the soil,” said senior political commentator Bharatkumar Raut.  However, many wonder if such speeches would translate into votes for the MNS.

The Shiv Sena, which retained its second position with 63 seats in the state assembly and the leading party status (84 seats) in the BMC, is also driving its politics on the emotive ‘sons of the soil’ and anti-migrant plank. “We are vying to capture the political vacuum created by regional parties like NCP and MNS. Their revival would be a cause of concern for us,” said a senior Sena MP who did not wish to be named.

In Mumbai, the Marathi vote bank is only 26 per cent. And successive elections have established that when it comes to exercising the franchise, people look for credible alternative. The BJP has so far relied on development plank and won successive local polls.

BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari dismissed the MNS rally as a “nautanki”. He said, “It was non-serious. MNS owes an answer to people as to why they never raised the hawkers issue when their corporators were in the BMC. Moreover, when did MNS ever take up people’s cause on suburban railways in the past?”