MUMBAI: Following Raj Thackeray ’s call on Sunday to opposition parties to sew up a broad alliance against BJP for the 2019 elections, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) may be set to join the Congress-NCP alliance in the state, according to MNS sources.

Addressing the MNS conclave at Shivaji Park on Sunday, Raj lambasted PM Narendra Modi and spoke of ‘ Modi-mukt ’ India in 2019. “Ending the BJP regime would be India’s third Independence,” he said. “The way he attacked Modi, there is hardly any doubt that our party will join the Congress-NCP alliance to take on BJP in the next polls,” said a senior MNS functionary on Monday. Raj’s 40-minute talks with NCP president Sharad Pawar in Mumbai last Saturday set the tone for new political equations in Maharashtra, he said.

Should the MNS inch closer to the Congress-NCP alliance, the Shiv Sena may give up its idea of going solo in the next election and forge a pre-poll partnership with BJP in order to build a powerful Hindutva votebank, said a senior Sena leader. “If Raj Thackeray teams up with the Congress-NCP, the three parties will collectively eat into the Marathi votebank. In view of this, the Sena can’t take any risk. It will have to join hands with BJP and ditto is the case with BJP,” he pointed out. The Congress has begun consultations with NCP for a pre-poll alliance and there is a possibility that NCP chief Pawar may rope in the MNS too. Pawar is also keen on having Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna leader Raju Shetti, MP, on board the alliance.

According to analysts, the Congress-NCP alliance could lay stress on agricultural issues during polls. It could project Dharma Patil, the Dhule agriculturist who committed suicide and the recent farmers’ morcha to Mumbai as heart-wrenching images of rural destitution, a legacy of BJP-Shiv Sena rule, in an attempt to consolidate its heartland voters. Raj, on the other hand, could play the Marathi card in the Mumbai metropolitan region. “Raj may close in on Marathi voters from Mumbai and also those who had perforce to migrate to far-flung townships such as Ambarnath, Kalyan-Dombivli, Virar-Vasai and Badlapur in recent years to escape land sharks,” added the MNS functionary.

Meanwhile, Raj’s speech has left the BJP fuming. Slamming the MNS chief for urging countrymen to end Modi rule, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said Raj should, for a start, worry about enhancing the poll prospects of MNS which, Shelar said in a statement, was down and out. TNN

