Mumbai: Aiming to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has openly started campaigning for Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alliance candidates.
MNS leaders and party supporters were seen campaigning for Congress candidate Eknath Gaikwad in South Central Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency. Shiv Sena’s Rahul Shewale is sitting Member of Parliament from this constituency.
It was the Congress, which despite insistence from the NCP, had opposed the entry of MNS into the grand alliance of Opposition parties for the LS polls. Despite this, prominent MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande joined the campaign at Shivaji Park and urged the people to cast their vote in favour of Gaikwad.
The Mumbai South Central seat has been a Shiv Sena stronghold, with the party representing the constituency from 1991 to 2004. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, Congress won from the constituency but in 2014, Shiv Sena once again captured this seat.
At a public rally in Mumbai last week, MNS chief Raj Thackeray had said that his party would not contest the LS polls but would support parties, which are willing to defeat PM Modi. “With this announcement, the MNS has made its intentions clear to oppose the Sena-BJP candidates. It may provide a tacit support to the opposition parties,” said a party insider.
The MNS has conveyed greetings to film star Urmila Matondkar, who is contesting from the North Mumbai seat after joining the Congress. The party is expected to offer its support to Matondkar on the basis of ‘Marathi Mulgi’ plank.
The NCP had strongly advocated that the MNS should be included in the grand alliance of the opposition. However, the Congress did not agree, fearing that MNS’ anti-North Indian stand might affect its chances in the northern states of the country in the LS polls