Going by the results of the 2012 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, Raj Thackrey, the estranged nephew of political heavyweight Bal Thackrey, seems all set to make the right impact in Maharashtra. His party, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), has been successful in winning 29 wards in this year's BMC elections at the expense of Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). However, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) alliance still took the maximum number of seats in the elections, winning 107 wards.
BMC, the richest municipal body of the country with a budget of more than Rs. 20,000 crores, has a total of 227 wards. Raj Thackrey's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) was viewed as a competitor to his uncle's Shiv Sena, though it won in areas that were the stronghold of Congress and NCP. Congress was able to secure 65 seats in the same elections, while other candidates won a total of 28 wards.
In the BMC elections, the candidate standing from ward number 182, Virendra Tandel, won with the support of Muslims, who earlier supported Congress. Similarly, Muslims also voted for Gita Chavan of the MNS in ward number 92, rather than the Congress candidate standing from the area. MNS leaders won the seats in ward number 13 and 184 by defeating Congress party candidates as well. On the other hand, MNS lost in ward number 97 to Congress, though there was a substantial rise in its voter base in the area.
According to a senior Congress leader who spoke anonymously on the subject, “This is a warning bell for both the Congress and the NCP. The MNS has harmed Sena, but in a very small manner. On the contrary to everyone’s guess, the party has successfully attracted Congress’ Marathi vote base and at many places even the Muslim vote base. Sena’s vote bank is as intact as it was before.”
A BJP office bearer also agreed, saying, “Where there is no BJP to vote for, the people have chosen the MNS. This is a dangerous trend for the parties who were banking on MNS to split Sena’s vote base.”
On the other hand, Nitin Sardesai, a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from MNS, the party is not looking to take over the voter base of Congress. He commented, “We are in the MNS and our aim is to expand our party base. If anyone is losing voters to us, then it is there lookout.”
This trend in voting reflects the party's fortunes in the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) elections held in 2011. MNS won 28 wards in that election, winning in many of the Congress, NCP and BJP bastions. However, it could not hurt the voter base of Shiv Sena, though many had expected it to.
It is said that Raj Thackrey's visit to Gujarat, such as the tour of Tata Nano plant located at Sanand, helped him attract Gujarati voters. He has been highly appreciative of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his efforts to make his state prosperous. Thackrey has lamented in the past that Maharashtra and Gujarat offer equal opportunities to industries but corporations stay away from the former due to red-tapism and corruption.
