The Thackeray cousins of Maharashtra-- Uddhav Thackeray and Raj Thackeray-- have one and only one thing in common apart from their surnames. Both of them are aiming to come out of the shadows of their allies in the upcoming assembly elections which will take place later this year.
Raj Thackeray, chief of the firebrand regional satrap Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), has announced that his party will go solo for the upcoming state elections. Thackeray announced in a party meeting that the MNS will contest 200-225 seats in the Maharashtra elections.
This comes as a surprise as the MNS chief, often seen as a splitting image of Bal Thackeray by political pundits and public alike, had declared unconditional support for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, his cousin and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has also pulled his socks and started a screening for assembly-wise candidates in the state, India Today reported.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) chief, who is also the former chief minister of Maharashtra, has further asked all his communication heads or 'sampark pramukhs' to submit a report on whether they should contest the polls with allies' support or go solo based on the Lok Sabha election results.
Furthermore, Uddhav has also sought a report on whether the office-bearers of their own candidate and candidate of the allied party worked together in the general elections or not. Uddhav Thackeray will seek a report on a series of criteria.
The criteria on which the report will be sought include if Shiv Sena (UBT) chooses to contest without any alliance, Lok Sabha election result 2024 and the party workers' opinion on it, and were the booth heads elected as listed.
Some other criteria include cooperation on part of the party workers of MVA allies-- NCP led by Sharad Pawar and Congress, what assembly constituencies are favourable for Shiv Sena (UBT), potential winning equation, which party should be given a seat not favourable for Shiv Sena (UBT) and is the BLA agent registered with the Election Office or not.
(With inputs from Ritvick Arun Bhalekar)