Forget the past, plan for 2019: Raj Thackeray

Mumbai: After the debacle in the municipal elections held in Mumbai and Nashik, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on his party’s foundation day on Thursday appealed his party workers to keep faith and start preparing for the state Assembly elections in 2019.

Mr Thackeray also targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party  (BJP) and said that the results of the civic body elections indicate that money won and work had lost. “My corporators had worked so hard to develop the city of Nashik. But look at the results, only five of my corporators got elected there. People have voted for goons in Nashik,” Mr Thackeray said.

In the BMC elections, the Shiv Sena turned out to be the single largest party with 84 seats followed by BJP with 82, Congress (31), NCP (nine) and the MNS winning just seven seats.

“After looking at the results I feel very bad today and with it the results also gave me a lesson as to what works for winning in elections. The mandate in municipal elections is such that people are going to suffer because of this and they would realise it soon,” he said.

In Nashik, BJP turned out to be the single largest party followed by Shiv Sena and MNS.

Mr Thackeray also slammed Prashant Paricharak, the Independent MLC who had allegedly made statements demeaning soldiers’ wives. He said, “It is shameful that we have such people existing in the society who utter all this.”

Concluding his speech, Mr Thackeray told his workers to forget everything and start preparations for the Assembly polls scheduled in 2019.