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Raj Thackeray picks auspicious day to launch MNS campaign

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray launched his election campaign from Pune on Monday, which is being celebrated as Gudi Padwa, the Maharashtrian new year.

Thackeray has announced the names of 10 candidates for the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra and has said a few more names would be released soon. Most of the MNS candidates have been pitted against the Shiv Sena, while one is against the BJP. Deepak Paigude is the MNS candidate from Pune, who is involved in a four-cornered contest; his rivals include Vishwajeet Kadam of the Congress, Anil Shirole of the BJP and Subhash Ware of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Shirole is a loyalist of the Gopinath Munde faction of the BJP in Munde, and got the ticket despite opposition from the Nitin Gadkari faction. Gadkari, a former BJP president, was pitching for Girish Bapat, a sitting MLA from Pune.

Interestingly, MNS leaders including Sharmila, the wife of Raj Thackeray, have been emphasising on the proximity between Gadkari and the MNS leader in recent days while campaigning for Paigude. The MNS is trying to woo the supporters of Gadkari and Bapat in the BJP unit in Pune, assuring them that after elections the MNS MPs would back Narendra Modi as the prime minister. Last month Gadkari had met Thackeray, urging him not to put up candidates against the BJP-Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. However, an angry Shiv Sena hit back at the BJP’s attempts to rope in the MNS in the Hindutva alliance in Maharashtra.

The top BJP leadership in Delhi had to assuage the feelings of Uddhav Thackeray, the Sena chief and Raj’s cousin, by assuring him that the party would continue with its alliance. With the MNS fielding seven candidates against the BJP-Sena, it will impact the final tally of the National Democratic Alliance in Maharashtra.

In the 2009 elections, the MNS had contested from 11 seats in Maharashtra; in at least 10 of those seats, its presence had resulted in the defeat of NDA candidates.

In the current Lok Sabha elections, the MNS has put up Bala Nandgaonkar, a strong candidate, in Mumbai south. While he will be taking on Milind Deora, the sitting Congress MP from the constituency, his presence will hurt Arvind Sawant, the Shiv Sena candidate, rather than Deora.

Similarly, its candidates in Mumbai south-central (Aditya Shriodkar), Mumbai north-west (Mahesh Manjrekar), Thane (Abhijeet Panse), Kalyan (Pramod Patil), Bhiwandi (Suresh Mhatre), Nashik (Pradeep Pawar) and Shirur (Ashok Khandebharad), will adversely affect the Shiv Sena, leading to possible defeat for the saffron combine.

The Congress-NCP will be the major beneficiaries in these seats where the MNS is putting up candidates.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com