Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray protest Rally against the stampede that took place at Elphistone Road railway station in Mumbai last week . Photo by BL SONI Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which was politically routed during the 2014 Lok Sabha and state assembly polls, has tried to re-establish the base of his party using the unfortunate stampede at Elphinstone railway station. Raj Thackeray, president of MNS organised an ‘santap rally’ (anger) against railway administration. However, instead of venting anger against the railways, Thackeray targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He has tried to incite the those who are simmering with anger against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the centre and state.
According to political observers, Thackeray cornered Modi to grab the dissatisfied right-wing voters who have supported BJP and wean them towards MNS. For a leader who does not step out of his residence, Krishna Kunj at Shivaji Park, it has been five years since Thackeray walked in any protest. On Thursday, Thackeray walked with his party workers protesting for half an hour from Metro theatre to the office of railway officials at Churchgate railway station.
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MNS leaders, including office bearers, campaigned through social media and appealed to the common man, and commuters to join the rally. Even on Thursday, party leaders including Sandeep Deshpande were distributing pamphlets. Actors from Marathi movies too appealed to the common man to join in and express their anger against the stampede. However, the public turned their back to the morcha and only MNS party workers were seen participating. In fact, the public was visibly upset for the traffic mess and inconvenience caused due to the protest march.
Raj supporters from Palghar and from Sinnar (Nasik) attended the morcha who have very less connection with daily woes of travelling by local trains in Mumbai. Thackeray, while addressing the gathering threatened railway officials to remove the hawkers, within 15 days. “MNS will remove these hawkers in our own style (by force),” said Thackeray. Except this one line, Thackeray cornered Modi in his few minutes speech. However, protesters did not respond to Raj for his criticism of Modi. They only clapped and responded in one word when Thackeray said Modi Thapa Martat (Modi speak lies).
In his speech, Thackeray criticised Modi over the bullet train project, his policies and Gujarat model of development. “This model was fake and I was misguided by Modi during my visit,” said Thackeray. According to a political observer, “MNS was routed in the 2014 polls and now he is using the stampede incident to re-establish his party,” said Abhay Deshpande, a political observer. “A section of right-wing politicians is disappointed with Modi but still they will not shift to Congress or Shiv Sena. Thackeray wants to fill the political vacuum which the MNS can fill,” said Deshpande.`
