‘MNS stand has never been anti-north Indians’

Your party is known for its anti north Indian stand so by giving you a ticket is it loosening its stand?

Our party’s agenda is and has always been development and we have been preparing for every election since our party’s inception on the basis of that. Our stand has never been anti-north Indians but pro-local people, those who are sons of the soil, those who have been living here for generations.

As long as a person is born and brought up here and has been living here for generations, how does it matter if he/she is Chaubey or Chaure. And on this, MNS is and will always remain firm on its stand.

How have you been convincing voters a majority of which are north Indians to vote for you when they identify your leader Raj Thackeray only for beating up north Indians?

It’s not me but my work in this constituency that will convince people to vote for me. People are smart. They know what they want and they will vote for development and will not fall prey to any kind of political ploy. At the time when prominent leaders of other parties were busy fighting for number of seats, seeking important portfolios and breaking alliances, there was just one leader who was working on development of the city and releasing a blueprint. People have seen this and they will identify Raj Thackeray for that.

You are pitted against Amol Kirtikar, son of sitting MP Gajanan Kirtikar, and sitting MLA Ramesh Singh Thakur. what chance do you stand?

Out of the total 2,72,000 voters in the constituency, 90,000 are north Indians, followed by 74,000 Maharashtrians and 60,000 Gujarati’s. The majority of voters are north Indians. They voted for Ramesh Singh, but what good he has done in all these years. He has neither done anything good for the north Indians nor has he done anything in the constituency. So why would people want to vote for him this time. About Amol Kirtikar, he started coming to the constituency only after he filed his nomination.

Do you think MNS would gain votes due to Sena-BJP break up?

I think so, because people have seen the entire political drama that unfolded over past few days. Other parties are just concerned about seats and power.