A shaky MNS braces for upcoming BMC polls
As Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) celebrates its 16th Foundation day on Wednesday, the party has become a pale shadow of its former avatar
Mumbai As Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) celebrates its 16th Foundation day on Wednesday, the party has become a pale shadow of its former avatar.
With defeats in back-to-back elections and exodus of several key leaders and prominent workers, the Raj Thackeray-led party is currently in tatters as it braces itself to face the prestigious BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
The party ceases to find takers among voters and none of the prominent parties want to forge an alliance as Thackeray struggles to erase the tag of a spoiler. Party’s rank and file is hoping that a tie-up with a party like BJP may help them regain lost ground.
The condition of MNS in the BMC, the richest civic body in India, is unpleasant as its tally slid from 28 in 2012 to seven in 2017. To add to its woes, it could not hold back its elected representatives as six party corporators defected to Shiv Sena. The situation can be gauged further from the fact that just two former legislators out of the 13 elected to Maharashtra assembly in 2009 are now active in the party.
Though Raj Thackeray continues to be one of the top leaders in Maharashtra politics given his nuisance value, political experts have ruled out any credible performance from his outfit in the upcoming polls.
The MNS suffers from a host of problems- inaccessibility of Raj Thackeray, the lack of credible second line of leadership, weak organisational network, lack of programmes for workers, demoralised cadres and paucity of resources.
In fact, the party does not have a local office in more than 50% of the total 236 BMC wards. “We are awfully short of resources and even our local leaders are not very enthused to set up offices. They are more interested in saving their positions and striking deals at the local level,” said one of the top leaders of the MNS.
Political expert Hemant Desai said that voters are not viewing MNS as an alternative. “The MNS has not been able to capitalise on the failures of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. Look at the way BJP is agitating the ruling party and on the other hand, there is no instigation from MNS at all,” rued Desai. He rues that Raj Thackeray has acquired the tag of a spoiler, whose only aim is to cut Maharashtrian votes and benefit the Sena opponents.
However, MNS general secretary Sandeep Deshpande dismissed all such claims saying that MNS will win substantial seats in the coming BMC polls. “The MNS workers have worked very hard during the pandemic. The people are tired of the Sena and will vote for us,” said Deshpande.
The genesis of the party can be traced as Raj Thackeray was once a top leader in the Shiv Sena, groomed by his uncle and Sena founder Bal Thackeray as his heir apparent. However, problems began when Bal Thackeray’s son, Uddhav, started asserting his hold and marginalised Raj.
In 2005, Raj quit the Sena and the very next year, formed his own party. Though his 2007 civic polls debut was a disaster, Raj gained strength in 2008 by aggressively pursuing the son-of-the-soil agenda, as his party men targeted north Indians and blamed them for the woes faced by Maharashtrians in the city. This paid rich dividends in the 2009 polls and Raj became a figure to reckon with.
Problems in MNS
1) Inaccessibility of Raj Thackeray and his failure to delegate power:
According to a former MNS legislator, who is no longer with the party, the problem is Thackeray’s trust deficit with his own party leaders and workers. He fails to allot time to the party and is mostly inaccessible to the workers. “In MNS, even top leaders don’t have the power to appoint any office bearer or even attend TV channel debates without his clearance. Hence, many important appointments are kept pending and party leaders are clueless,” he added.
2) Failure to build a second line of leadership:
Unlike Bal Thackeray, who groomed leaders like Manohar Joshi, Narayan Rane, Pramod Navalkar and Sudhir Joshi, Raj has no such big names in his second line. Political analyst Surendra Jondhale said, “The second line is the link between the party chief and the local leadership. The current MNS leadership hardly inspires and is seen more catering to Raj Thackeray than to the party.”
3) Weak organisational network
The MNS has a weak organisational network in place, which can be gauged from the fact that it does not have local offices in more than 50% of its 236 BMC wards. “How can citizens approach us if we don’t have a basic office in place?” rued a senior leader.
4) Failure to strengthen frontal outfits
The MNS has nine different wings like students, transport, labour and self employment. However, critics pointed out that there has been no attempt to strengthen them.
5) Tag of a spoiler and lack of consistency
The MNS is now widely perceived as the party whose only aim is to damage the Shiv Sena and strengthen its opponents. This has not gone well with its core Maharashtrian voters, who see Raj Thackeray as a ‘spoiler’.
6) MNS currently faces resource crunch
The MNS is currently going through a resource crunch, which is the reason behind its hopes for an alliance with the BJP. The MNS is in danger of being marginalised due to the high-profile battle for BMC on cards.