Mumbai: Losing six of his corporators to Shiv Sena came as a big blow to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray who is struggling to make a political comeback. Mr Thackeray has been losing all major polls since his party’s drubbing in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Shiv Sena has emerged as a stronger party amid fears that the number of Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) corporators would exceed its own in the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC). It was anticipated that Mr Thackeray would make political comeback after his huge march in the backdrop of the Elphinstone tragedy. However, this was not to be. The MNS is now left with lone corporator Sanjay Kurde and one MLA, Sharad Sonavane, in the state Assembly. After its inception in 2006, MNS’ political graph was on the rise. The MNS chief’s anti-migrant stand received support from locals and many Shiv Sena workers quit their party to join the MNS. The party was seen as a better option for the Sena whose reins were with Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray. Mr Thackeray’s fiery speeches became popular and he tried to emulate like his late uncle, Sena supremo Bal Thackeray, who raised his voice against outsiders in the 1970s. Mr Thackeray was also considered a better leader than his cousin for his oration and style.
In 2009, Mr Thackeray contested the Assembly polls for the first time and 14 of his party’s MLAs were elected. One of them Ram Kadam, who is now in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had slapped then-Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi in the Assembly for not taking the oath in Marathi. However, MNS slowly lost Mr Kadam and Pravin Darekar, another MLA, to the BJP. Many of their co-workers also got disillusioned with Mr Thackeray and went back to Shiv Sena.
A turning point came for MNS when its chief extended support to BJP’s then-prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Mr Thackeray went to Gujarat and praised Mr Modi and his ‘development model’. However, the move badly backfired on him, as he kept on losing polls after this.
Blaming Mr Thackeray’s inactiveness for his decline, senior journalist Prakash Akolkar said that he lost many good leaders such as Shishir Shinde.
