“The coming together of Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray after 20 years and the way the Shiv Sena and MMS leaders and workers are jointly fighting against the BJP government forcefully imposing Hindi on Maharashtrians at the cost of the Marathi language and culture has evoked massive support from the public. Now, there is public pressure on Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS leadership to forge an electoral alliance for the local body elections, including municipal polls in Mumbai and other corporations,” Raut, who was the interlocutor in the six-month long behind-the-scene talks for the coming together of the Thackeray cousins and their parties, told ET on Wednesday.
Asked what role INDIA bloc in Maharashtra, comprising Congress, SS(UBT), NCP(SCP) and others, will have in the local body polls, Raut said: “There will be no INDIA bloc arrangement in Maharashtra local polls. INDIA bloc was meant for fighting only the assembly and Lok Sabha elections. Now, the public demand is for Sena (UBT) and MMS to fight these (civic body) elections in alliance.”
Apart from Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, Sena (UBT) and MMS could also jointly fight polls in Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ullas Nagar, Nasik and Sambhaji Nagar-Aurangabad corporations. The move signals that the larger Sena family is returning to the ‘basics’ of the Marathi manoos plank and politics of street shows sprinkled with Hindutva to try and rediscover the Bal Thackeray brand of Sena politics to resist BJP challenge.
About not aligning with Congress, which also has stakes in Mumbai and some other corporations, Raut said: “The dynamic of local body election is different, and it now warrants a Sena-MNS alliance. Congress will also fight these elections, perhaps on its own. Remember, even when we (united Sena) were in alliance with BJP, Sena had separately fought the BMC elections (in 2017, leading to SS-BJP break-up in 2019). Such things happen.”
Ever since the Thackeray cousins signalled a patch-up, Congress has sensed trouble for INDIA bloc’s unity in the Maharashtra civic polls and has been expecting the eventuality of its solo run. The manner SS(UBT)-MNS has launched an agitation against the ‘imposition of Hindi’ also runs parallel to RJD-Congress alliance’s extra sensitivity to Hindi and north Indians’ sensibilities in the Bihar polls.
