Shivsena chief Uddhav Thackeray insists on going solo, rejects Raj Thackeray’s proposal

Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena said yesterday evening that Shiv Sena rejected its overtures for tie-up for the civic elections in Mumbai. There was speculation about possible alliance between the estranged Thackeray cousins who parted ways over ten years ago after Shiv Sena’s talks for alliance with BJP fell through.

 

MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar claimed this evening that Raj Thackeray made seven calls to his cousin and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray between January 22 and Monday, but the latter did not answer the calls or return them. “I personally visited Uddhav Thackeray’s residence yesterday with a message from Raj that our party is keen on alliance…there was no positive response to our proposal. We also said that MNS will be a junior partner of Shiv Sena in the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. We proposed that MNS would contest the seats where we had won (last time) and rest can be contested by Shiv Sena. But there was no positive response,” said Nandgaonkar. “The alliance, if happens, can easily stop BJP from becoming the single largest party in MCGM,” he said.

 

Sena leaders indicated that if the alliance was to happen, the party would seek all the seats in Dadar area where MNS had done very well last time, he said. A Sena leader had said earlier in the day that Uddhav Thackeray had made it clear that seat-sharing or tactical alliance with any party was now out of question, though “if anybody wants to support us, we will consider it sympathetically”.

 

Nandgaonkar could not meet Uddhav, but handed over a letter containing the party’s proposal.

 

Shiv Sena’s response

Even as the Raj Thackeray-led MNS knocked at the doors of Shiv Sena for a tie-up in the upcoming civic polls, Uddhav Thackeray said he has not received any alliance proposal from anyone and reiterated that his party would fight the elections all alone. “We have entered the electoral battlefield with full resolve. No proposal for alliance has come to us from anyone. We will not have any alliance with anyone. We will contest on our own strength,” the Sena president said, putting to rest the speculations about joining of hands of the estranged cousins.

 

Responding to Uddhav’s statement, MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said, “I had personally gone to ‘Matoshree’ (Uddhav’s residence) and offered proposal for alliance in the interest of Mumbai. But if Uddhav Thackeray says that no proposal was given, then I am a liar.”

 

 

Nandgaonkar met the MNS president at ‘Krishna Kunj’, the latter’s residence in Dadar. Meanwhile, an MNS source said that in the proposal, the party had asked Shiv Sena to give the party the seats that it currently holds in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

 

On January 26, Uddhav had announced that his party would contest the upcoming civic polls in the state all alone, putting to rest speculations about forging of ties with its ally BJP for upcoming civic polls.