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    MNS leaders fear Raj’s flip-flop would end up further confusing the voters

    Synopsis

    Thackeray’s indecision is being blamed on the “realisation” that the party would not get even 15 seats in the forthcoming assembly polls.

    ET Bureau
    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s statement that he is not sure about contesting the assembly elections comes as a dampener to his party cadres who, along with him, have been working for nearly two months on a ‘vision document’ for the state on the assumption that Thackeray would be the party’s chief ministerial candidate since he had earlier indicated he would stand for the polls.

    The document boasts of a nine-point agenda covering issues from roads to education and was being framed to boost the party’s chances in the elections that the workers believed would be fought with the MNS chief leading from the front.

    “His announcement that he would be the chief ministerial candidate obviously led to renewed enthusiasm within our cadres. After all, our organisation has been maligned for being in politics as a proxy for the Congress-NCP to damage the Sena-BJP,” a senior MNS leader said.

    The leader, who did not wish to be identified, added, “With Raj declaring that he was going to be the CM candidate we could finally claim that we are a serious player in the field. But now that he has said he is not sure of contesting we are back to square one.” Thackeray, however, clarified on Monday that he had not said he would not contest, referring to newspaper reports on his statement of the previous day. He said he was still evaluating his decision on whether he would be contesting or not.

    But MNS leaders said the damage had been done and the flip-flop would end up confusing the voters.

    Thackeray’s indecision is being blamed on the “realisation” that the party would not get even 15 seats in the forthcoming assembly polls and that even he might find it difficult to win his seat if he chose to contest. “I don’t see the MNS getting more than 15 seats. Even Raj will find it difficult to locate a safe seat to contest as the Sena-BJP has done well in more than 200 assembly segments out of the total 288,” said journalist and political analyst Kumar Ketkar.

    The MNS had won 13 seats in the 2009 assembly polls. However, its tally has reduced to 11 since as one of its MLAs died and the party could not get another party member re-elected from his seat while another MLA quit the party.

    The Congress-NCP combine has also been watching the development closely as the MNS eats into its rival Sena-BJP’s votes and has helped secure its victories in the past.


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