MNS chief Raj Thackeray kickstarts statewide tour with rally in Vasai on Maharashtra Day

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj Thackeray begins his statewide tour on Tuesday, Maharashtra Day, with a rally in Vasai, signalling the start of his 2019 election campaign.

Thackeray has already declared that he will campaign aggressively against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led (BJP) central and state governments.

For several months now, Thackeray has been actively trying to regain the mass popularity that his party used to enjoy, through various campaigns, rallies and anti-BJP rhetorics.

In the first phase of his campaign, spread over five days, the MNS chief will cover areas on the outskirts of Mumbai, such as Palghar, Murbad, Bhiwandi and Badlapur, meeting MNS office-bearers, prominent local citizens and social groups and soliciting their views.

Indications are that Thackeray has the tacit support of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, who is working to bring all political parties opposed to the BJP under one umbrella. Thackeray and Pawar have met and believed to have discussed this matter.

Of late, Thackeray has been openly critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi , calling for a “Modi-mukt Bharat” during his Gudi Padwa rally.

Last month, Thackeray, who had gone to Mulund to give out auto-rickshaws to 100 women drivers, condemned that BJP for supporting rapists and chanting Bharat Mata ki Jai while marching in their support.

He has also appealed to like-minded parties to forge a united opposition against the BJP for the 2019 polls. “It is high time we achieved our third independence in 2019,” he has said, referring to 1947, and the lifting of Emergency in 1977 as the two other Independence movements. He has also alleged that the BJP will engineer riots for political gains in the run-up to the polls, as the government has no worthwhile achievements to talk about.