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Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  MNS’ struggle to stay politically relevant
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MNS’ struggle to stay politically relevant

MNS activists ransacked toll booths last week; agitation has been launched with eyes on forthcoming Lok Sabha polls

A file photo of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. Photo: HT Premium
A file photo of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. Photo: HT

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists ransacked toll booths across the state last week. They were trying to send a signal to citizens of the state—tired of paying up toll every few kilometers without any apparent improvement in the quality of road on which they travel—that MNS is the party on whom they can rely.

However, the perception is that the MNS agitation does not have people’s interest at heart; it has been launched with eyes on the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and, more importantly, assembly polls scheduled during September-October.

People have not forgotten how two years ago the MNS agitation on the same issue withered away. In June-July 2012, the MNS launched the agitation against toll tax in the state with much fanfare, ransacking some toll plazas. The MNS activists maintained round-the-clock vigil on some important toll roads for one week and collected the figures of how many vehicles actually pass the toll plazas.

The figures compiled by MNS had shown that daily toll tax collection on Mumbai-Pune Expressway in 2012 July was around 1.4 crore. This means by the end of the concession period—or, the period for which contractor gets rights to collect the toll—the total amount collected by the contractor by 2027 will be many times more than the original cost of Pune-Mumbai Expressway 2,500 crore.

The MNS had filed a public interest litigation in the Bombay high court and written a letter to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan demanding an inquiry.

The present agitation of MNS seems to be afterthought, an attempt to take advantage of anti-toll mood built against the backdrop of successful agitation by residents of southern Maharashtra town of Kolhapur who have successfully blocked the attempts to impose toll in the city.

The Kolhapur agitation provided the MNS with an opportunity to declare that it is still politically relevant in Maharashtra. But, unlike in the last Lok Sabha elections in 2009, curiosity factor is not going to be working in favour of MNS this time around; this advantage is now with Aam Admi Party (AAP).

What is going to hurt the MNS the most during the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls is complete negligence towards building of party organisation at the grassroots over last five years.

The MNS inherited the structure of one-man army from its parent organisation Shiv Sena, which was built around charisma of its chief Bal Thackeray. Unlike Union agriculture minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Thackeray Sr. never believed in touring every nook and cranny of the state, establishing rapport with grassroot workers of the party.

In early days of Sena, Thackeray Sr. had two lieutenants—the current group leader in legislative council Diwakar Raote and public works minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Chhagan Bhujbal—who would do this job diligently. But MNS lacks such leaders at the helm who can undertake this kind of labourious assignment.

Thackeray Sr. hardly left his perch of Matoshree (his residence in Mumbai’s western suburb Bandra) but was always accessible to Sena workers over phone or in person, who will come to meet him. In fact, every Sena worker who used to visit Matoshree would never return without enjoying hospitality of his wife Meenatai, better known as Maa saheb in Sena circles.

But, hardly any MNS worker can say such things about Raj Thackeray. In fact, one hears stories about how party workers from interior Maharashtra come to meet Raj are made to wait for hours when Raj Thackeray discusses the art of cartooning or latest Hollywood movies with his close friends.

The party is still hoping that a few fiery speeches of Raj and some acts of vandalism will help it repeat its 2009 performance in Lok Sabha election when it did not win a single seat but managed to damage chances of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Sena candidate in at least 10 constituencies in the state.

Maharashtra has total 48 seats of Lok Sabha, out of which 20 are with BJP-Sena, 25 with Congress-NCP and three with smaller parties or independent candidates.

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections will be a different ball game. The urban electorate seems to have found a messiah in form of Gujarat chief minister and BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and those who are not comfortable with Modi are gravitating towards Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP. In such a scenario, the MNS has little choice but to continue to wage its own battle to remain politically relevant.

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Published: 03 Feb 2014, 12:41 PM IST
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