Regional parties eyeing Raj Thackeray's MNS for third front in Maharashtra

On Thursday, Peasants and Workers' Party Leader Jayant Patil and Jan Surajya Party President Vinay Kore met Raj at his Dadar residence with a possibility of a third front.

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Regional parties eyeing Raj Thackeray's MNS for third front in Maharashtra
Raj Thackeray

At the time when political parties are wooing allies, MNS supremo Raj Thackeray is keeping his cards closed. After former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari met Thackeray, many other regional players have begun wooing the leader to form a non-Congress, non-BJP front in Maharashtra. On Thursday, Peasants and Workers' Party Leader Jayant Patil and Jan Surajya Party President Vinay Kore met Raj at his Dadar residence with a possibility of a third front.

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"We discussed the possibilties of forming a third front," said Vinay Kore after the meeting.

The significance of MNS is more for BJP as the party will eat into BJP-Shivsena alliance votebank. BJP's desperation to woo Raj Thackeray is a testimonial to this fact. Sources say, much before Gadkari, senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde secretly met Raj in Pune. According to sources, Raj and Munde met at a leading businessman's residence in Pune. Ironically it was Munde who had announced that there is no space for a new ally in the alliance.

Shivsena has been vehemently opposing any help from the MNS to the NDA and even launched a scathing attack on Nitin Gadkari for cosying up with Raj.

Raj Thackeray is expected to formally announce his party's official stand on whether he will contest the Loksabha polls or will tie up with other smaller parties. His stand is something which both the BJP-Shivsena and the Congress-NCP will be watching closely.