MNS zeroes in on a few candidates

Even as Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have turned restless due to reports that the party would be fielding candidates only in constituencies where there are Shiv Sena candidates, the party is understood to have zeroed in on a few candidates.

MNS is likely to nominate Bala Nandgaonkar for the South Mumbai Lok Sabha seat; Aditya Shirodkar will contest in the South-Central seat and Ramesh Patil from Kalyan. It may also nominate actor Mahesh Manjrekar for the North-West Mumbai constituency. However, there is no clarity on the candidates in seats which will be contested by the BJP.

"There is tremendous pressure from party cadre not to differentiate between the BJP and the Shiv Sena. They want MNS to contest in all seats. Some of the cadres have indicated to leaders that they were in a mood to desert the party if it adopted the policy of sparing BJP candidates in the LS polls," said a party leader.

However, Raj Thackeray has not made his intentions clear on the party's stand and also on candidates. He is expected to make an announcment on Sunday during the foundation day programme of the party.