Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray held a hush-hush meeting with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at his residence on Thursday, with the timing triggering the buzz of another churn in the state’s political circles.
The meeting comes just a day after the alliance of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS, in their first joint electoral contest, were routed in the BEST employees’ co-operative credit society polls.
THACKERAYS ROUTED IN BEST POLLS
The coalition failed to win any of the 21 seats in the polls. While the BJP-backed panel won seven seats, the panel backed by the BEST workers’ union won 14. The loss of the Thackerays exposed the chink in their ground-level mobilisation and their impact as a whole.
The polls had drawn attention as it was the first joint electoral contest by the Thackeray cousins, who last month united for a mega rally after 20 years of political estrangement and suggested that they would contest the upcoming municipal polls together.
However, the election loss has come as a reality check for the Thackerays. More so because the voter base in the BEST polls consisted largely of Marathi-speaking employees, seen as the core support bloc of the Sena (UBT) and MNS.
On Wednesday, Fadnavis said the poll results reflected the failure of the “Thackeray brand”. A day later, Raj Thackeray met at his Varsha residence, fuelling speculation of a possible realignment ahead of BMC polls.
‘NO POLITICAL ANGLE’
However, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar downplayed the meeting, asserting there was no political angle to it.
“Many leaders meet one another as well as with the chief minister, irrespective of whether they are in power or not. Maintaining communication with each other is the tradition of the state. There is no need to give a political angle to this meeting,” PTI quoted Pawar as saying.
Later, Raj Thackeray, in a press conference, clarified that he raised issues of town planning, traffic chaos, and the state of Mumbai’s roads with the Chief Minister.
“Town planning is an important issue for me… Take any city, Mumbai, Thane, Pune. There is a planning issue. There is no traffic discipline. We are stuck with pigeons and elephants,” he said, referring to the brouhaha over the ban on pigeon feeding and the relocation of Madhuri, the elephant.
He also took a swipe at the Fadnavis government on the redevelopment of the Dharavi slum.
“Just by giving land to Adani, Dharavi will not change. Rather than focusing on ‘urban Naxals’, these fundamental urban issues must be addressed,” he further said.
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