From Flag to Stage - Raj Thackeray's fight plan!
In mid 2000s when Udhav got reins of Shiv Sena from Bala Saheb, Raj went out and formed his own party. It was MNS.
The party saw a sudden rise and got a good start with few seats in assembly elex and a few more in BMC elex
But, the rise wasn’t consistent. Shiv Sena was riding on agenda of Hindutva and along with BJP, it was looking in a better position
Raj, who has always lead a ‘Maratha Manus’ point of view and has played Anti-Gujarati politics, started praising Modi’s Gujarat model
This was around 2014. The one more year passed and Raj started to see that his praises aren’t earning him any position.
During 2015–2019, Raj became the most prominent Maratha critic of PM Modi & Amit Shah
All this while, his party failed to show improvement
Raj, just like his father, is very eloquent speaker. He is a good crowd puller, but unlike his father, he doesn’t have the magic to convert this crowd into votes.
Nevertheless, he conducted several rallies before 2019 elections, even though his party wasn’t even contesting
His rallies didn’t make even a dent and Modi came back with even improved majority.
Then came 2019 state assembly elections. MNS, like every other time, failed again. But, this time, Shiv Sena did something that brought sparkles in Raj’s eyes
Shiv Sena in persuit of CM seat, deceived hindutva agenda and sat on the lap of Congress & NCP
Many Hindutva loyalists in Shiv Sena were angry. But they were persuaded. However, the move created a void of sorts that could address Hindutva voters
BJP couldn’t fill that void instantly because it had just tried and failed to make alliance with NCP
Then came CAA — NRC, in Congress’pressure, Shiv Sena started to oppose that
Looking at this golden opportunity, In Jan 2020, Raj made a few changes in MNS
The party flag dropped blue (signified Dalits) and green (signified Muslims) from it’s flag and went all out saffron with Raj Mudra of Chhatrapati Shiva Ji Maharaj.
For the first time, he used Veer Savarkar’s image along with bust of Chhatrapati Shiva Ji Maharaja on stage
Yesterday, Raj’s rally in support of CAA was one more step in this direction
His party is in desperation to make a comeback. He thinks, he has hit a golden opportunity. Will he succeed? Only time will tell
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