Desperate for survival, Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena appears to have fallen back on his tried and tested formula to regain political relevance. With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections around the corner, Thackeray has gone back to slamming migrants, holding them responsible for the infrastructure woes of the state capital Mumbai.
Addressing an event of the MNS disaster management wing in Dadar, Thackeray said that the uncontrolled influx of migrants was responsible for the bar drains and rivers in Mumbai.
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“There is a limit to how many migrants should come to a city. After all, the influx of migrants leads to overburdened infrastructure. These migrants built illegal colonies along the drains and river banks. These lead to poor drain and river management. It leads to overflowing drains, choked drains,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying.
The struggle for relevance
Far from the force it once used to be, the MNS of today is a faint shadow of its glorious past. Five years after its formation, the MNS announced its arrival in the Assembly elections held in the state in 2009 with 13 MLAs. In the early days since its formation, the MNS built a formidable presence in Mumbai, and neighbouring Nasik and Pune. It won six corporator seats in the 2017 BMC polls as well.
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However, over the years, the MNS tally of MLAs kept dropping and was reduced to one legislator in the polls held in 2019. In the BMC too, all but one corporator joined the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray. Since then, Raj Thackeray and the MNS have struggled to remain relevant in Maharashtra politics. The latest remarks by Thackeray are thus an attempt to correct its constantly falling graph.
The return of the ‘Marathi Manoos’
Being wooed by the BJP, which is currently in alliance with the Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena, the MNS senses an opportunity to reassert itself and make its presence felt. While attacks against migrants, particularly from UP and Bihar, increased with the rise in the graph of MNS and Thackeray, the incidents stopped over the past decade as their popularity fell.
Thackeray, however, continued to raise the issue, though intermittently. During the Covid pandemic, he blamed migrants for the spread of the virus in Mumbai. His party has also clashed with Samajwadi Party workers ahead of a rally in Mumbai.
By reverting to the old formula that once got him success, Thackeray is trying to hit two birds with one stone. While on one hand, it panders to the son-of-the-soil sentiment that could help him gain traction during the MNS’ heydays, on the other, it also allows him to target the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena, which has controlled the BMC for over 25 years.
Many leaders of the Congress, which is in an alliance with the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena, also hail from outside Maharashtra, a factor that only helps his estranged brother press ahead with his agenda further.