Raj Thackeray spits fire in the rains

Sunday’s downpour was no dampner for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).

While most other parties called off their election meetings, thousands of MNS supporters braved the rains at Ashok Van, Dahisar, to hear their leader, Raj Thackeray, speak. Standing in open air, they got drenched to the bone. But Raj’s trademark fiery speech warmed their hearts.

Raj began by firing a salvo at his cousin, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray. Accusing the Sena leaders of taking Marathi Manus for granted, he urged the voters to teach them a lesson. Laughing off Uddhav’s remark that the MNS was being used by the Congress-NCP as a vehicle to divide the Marathi votes, Raj reminded that it was the Sena that had forged an alliance with the NCP to rule the Pune Municipal Corporation.

Criticising both the ruling alliance and the Sena-BJP opposition for the slow pace of development in the state, Raj said “not a single megawatt of power” had been generated in the past 12 years. “The state has signed MoUs with at least 15 power generation firms, but not an inch of land has been allotted to any of them. But there is no stopping political leaders and their relatives from grabbing acres of public land,” he said.

Taking potshot at chief minister Ashok Chavan, the MNS chief said, “The demise of Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajshekhara Reddy led to people committing suicide in that state. But in Maharashtra, suicides are being committed because Chavan is alive.”
Reigniting the Marathi versus non-Marathi debate, Raj asked the sons of the soil to speak only Marathi while interacting with the ‘outsiders’.

Ashok Van falls in the Magathane assembly constituency, where MNS has a formidable presence. At the rally, Raj inducted two local NCP leaders into the party. MNS general secretary Pravin Darekar is contesting the polls from Magathane. Pitted against him are NCP’s Prakash Surve and Ashok Nar of the Sena.