MNS not in poll fray, but Raj Thackeray a key campaigner for NCP-Congress

Such has been Thackeray's popularity that neither NCP chief Sharad Pawar nor Congress chief Rahul Gandhi addressed any rallies in Mumbai in the last couple of days

Election campaigning in Maharashtra ended on Saturday evening, but had reached a crescendo 24 hours earlier when two simultaneous public rallies held the state’s attention — one that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis addressed in Mumbai, and the other by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray in Nashik.

On Facebook, the live streams of the two public meetings had near equal viewership. Nearly 9,000 people watched Thackeray’s speech live as it neared its end on Friday evening. Around the same time, Modi’s speech hooked around 10,000 people. Live viewers for the same public meeting could not