After throwing his hat into the ring as his party's chief ministerial candidate, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray may choose to contest the assembly polls from home turf in Mahim. He could also contest from a seat outside Mumbai to try and energize party cadres in the particular region.
Why Mahim and not some other?
Party leaders will not talk about the issue. But sources admit that Raj is looking at Mahim. Raj lives on the periphery of Shivaji Park in Dadar, where he held the inaugural rally of his party in 2006. And like Dadar, the Mahim area too is dominated by Maharashtrians.
Raj will be the first member of the Thackeray clan to contest elections and his announcement has been interpreted as a gamble to try and keep his flock together, after the poor performance in the recent Lok Sabha election. All ten candidates the MNS put up forfeited their security deposits
"Though it hasn't been formally announced, the preparations indicate Raj saheb may contest from Mahim," said a party functionary. Currently, Mahim is represented in the state assembly by Nitin Sardesai of the MNS. All seven corporators from the area are also from the party.
Freeing the chief to campaign elsewhere
"Mahim is our stronghold. If he contests from here it will also allow him to campaign across the state without worrying much about his constituency. We have no other star campaigner," said a party functionary.
The leader pointed out that Raj has a personal relationship with many people in the Mahim area as a result of which the party was able to collect funds totalling near Rs20 crore for various development works.
Recently, the MNS crossed swords with the Shiv Sena over operationalisation of a WiFi system in Shivaji Park. Earlier, it fought to install a rainwater harvesting at Mahim Park.
But the involvement of the Thackerays with Dadar is old and deep. The Shiv Sena, from which Raj broke away, was born at the Kadam Mansion residence of his uncle Bal Thackeray on Ranade Road in June 1966. The party has always held its annual Dusshera rallies at the Shivaji Park.
In fact, Balasaheb's father Prabhodhankar Thackeray lived in Dadar for a long period and he initiated the Navratri celebrations at Khandke chawl way back in 1926 as an answer to the Brahmanical Ganesh Utsav that left out other castes.
A section of the MNS believes that Raj should contest from Marathwada to tap the anger against the ruling Congress-NCP government as well as the Shiv Sena-BJP which has done little in the region.
The parties could be weaker due to the deaths of Vilasrao Deshmukh and Gopinath Munde. Marathwada accounts for 46 of the total 288 assembly seats.
Nashik is a possible second choice from where Raj could contest. Even Vile Parle and Dombivali are options, a party leader said. He explained that the party had undertaken water conservation projects in some villages in Marathwada and it could encash the goodwill.
Still, MNS activists are worried that a weak party organisation and the absence of a credible programme could split the anti-establishment vote, eventually benefiting the ruling alliance and stall the movement of the party to the treasury benches.
The MNS got 13 candidates elected to the assembly in 2009. Some of them were rebels from the Congress and NCP.
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