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Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray has been in the limelight recently for having proposed to support Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial candidature without joining the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance. The leader, who has modelled his personal as well as political style on his deceased uncle Bal Thackeray’s, rules out an MNS merger with the Shiv Sena or an alliance with estranged cousin Uddhav Thackeray. Also, the MNS will go solo in the coming Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Raj Thackeray tells a select group of journalists. Sanjay Jog reports
MNS has been termed the Congress party’s B-team. What do you have to say?
There is no B or C team. When the Shiv Sena was formed in the 1960s it was also termed as the Congress party's B-team. However, the Shiv Sena defeated the Congress in the 1995 Maharashtra Assembly elections. Mine is an independent party. I don't buy this argument that the Congress and the NCP have benefited from the MNS’s entry into the electoral fray. There was no Shiv Sena in Jalgaon but MNS nominees were elected to the civic body. Hundreds of thousands of youth casting their vote for the first time are coming out in large numbers to support the MNS. Despite MNS presence, members of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance are also elected. Then there is no division. Victory or defeat of any party depends on the voters in general.
You are not a Shiv Sena-BJP ally but have offered support to Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial bid. This is despite the BJP and Shiv Sena saying your support is not required. Your comments.
Let me clear my position. In 2011, after I visited Gujarat and personally saw the progress made by the Narendra Modi-led government I had announced that Modi was fit to be the prime minister. If the country’s development needs to scale new highs, Modi should become prime minister. Therefore, I have declared my support for him. I have not extended support to the BJP or to Rajnath Singh. My support to Modi is unconditional.
The Shiv Sena until recently was not supporting Modi's prime ministerial candidature but was backing BJP veteran leaders L K Advani and Sushma Swaraj.
BJP leader Nitin Gadkari had proposed that you join the NDA and support Modi for prime ministership. What made you reject the proposal?
There was no concrete proposal for the MNS to join the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra. Gadkari is a good friend. He had proposed that the MNS abstain from the Lok Sabha polls and support Modi for PM.
I rejected that, asking whether the BJP would abstain from the ensuing state Assembly elections. I have fielded 10 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. My support is to Modi for PM. There is no question of joining the NDA. I will go it alone in the state Assembly elections, too.
Will the fight between you and estranged cousin Uddhav continue or end?
I do not want to say anything in this regard as I have made my position clear on a number of occasions in the past. It is not a family issue but a political one.
Will the MNS continue to oppose the influx of migrants in Mumbai?
The city’s infrastructure is already collapsing and simultaneously there is huge encroachment on government and municipal land while private land remains untouched. Stop the influx for the future of Mumbai. It is interesting to note that most of our prime ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, V P Singh and Atal Behari Vajpayee, have been from Uttar Pradesh. Had that state been developed, there would have been no need for its people to come to Mumbai for livelihood.
It will be my friendly advice to Modi to concentrate for the first five years of his tenure as prime minister on the development of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand along the lines of Gujarat. That will help generate more jobs and thereby reduce migration. That will also ease the burden on Mumbai’s crumbling infrastructure.
When will you release your blueprint for Maharashtra?
It will be out in August.
Are you eyeing the Maharashtra chief minister’s post?
I will accept it in the larger interest of the state. I will be happy if I become chief minister on my party’s victory.
