Click to play videoMumbai: The Congress-NCP combine swept Mumbai, winning all 6 seats in the city and one person they need to thank for that decisive victory is the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Raj Thackeray and party. The MNS may not have won a single seat, but they showed their strength by splitting the BJP - Shiv Sena's vote bank.
MNS Chief Raj Thackeray (on sidelining MNS by Shiv Sena from national politics) said, “Apun ne unko sirf do maara lekin kya solid maara na, (I striked them only twice but didn’t I give them solid ones?).
His confidence comes from these numbers:
The MNS fielded candidates in 12 seats who got an average of 1.45 lakh votes each, in many cases far more than the winning margin.
In the Mumbai South and Nashik constituencies, MNS candidates were at number 2 position after the Congress NCP, pushing the BJP -SS combine to number 3.
The biggest gainer from the MNS effect was the NCP's Sanjay Patil in North-East Mumbai, who got just 2933 votes more than the BJP-Sena candidate. The MNS candidate here bagged over 1.9 lakh votes.
Sanjay Nirupam contesting from the Mumbai North constituency won by 6779 votes over the BJP-SS candidate Ram Naik. The MNS candidate here got 1.2 lakh votes
The trend was visible outside Mumbai too. In the MNS stronghold of Nashik, the NCP's Sameer Bhujbal won by over 22,000 votes. The MNS candidate here got a massive 2.1 lakh votes.
In Pune, high profile Congress candidate Suresh Kalmadi won by over 25,000 votes. The MNS candidate got over 75,000 votes.
However, despite the visible damage, though, the Shiv Sena remains in denial.
Executive President, Shiv Sena Uddhav Thackeray said, “Last election may bhi mumbai me sirf ek seat mili thi, us time kaha thi MNS? last time 12 mili, is baar 11 seats mili.” (Last election we had got one seat, where was MNS that time? We got 12 last time, this time we got 11).”
Before the elections several senior Shiv sena leaders like Manohar Joshi had dismissed the MNS as a threat in national elections. They've now been forced to eat their words and with assembly elections just a few months away, Raj Thackeray has proved that you may love him or hate him, but you cannot ignore him.
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