‘Will stay at home, but never compromise,‘ says Raj Thackeray on Maharashtra political scenario- NSP NEWS

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said that he would spell out his stance on the current political developments by addressing a rally of his partymen in the next 15 days.. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Pune

Lashing out at the current political scenario in the State, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Thursday said he would not compromise his political ideals even if he had sit out the forthcoming elections at home.

Mr. Thackeray, who is on a tour of the Konkan to rebuild his party’s fortunes, was speaking to his cadre at Chiplun in Ratnagiri district.

Alluding to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar splitting the Sharad Pawar-led party to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr. Thackeray said: “What is happening at the moment is deplorable and I will never do such a thing…I may have to sit at home, but will never compromise.”

Exhorting his party workers to work with one mind, Mr. Thackeray, who is the estranged cousin of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, said that he would spell out his stance on the current political developments by addressing a rally of his partymen in the next 15 days.

“All office-bearers of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena have to do what the party tells them to do, else they will not be permitted to remain in their posts… All party workers must work unitedly and with one mind,” said Mr. Thackeray, who has been attempting to shore up his party’s dwindling political fortunes.

Earlier, speaking after Mr. Ajit Pawar’s swearing-in ceremony (on July 2) following the NCP split, Mr. Raj Thackeray had blamed Mr. Sharad Pawar for having begun the politics of party-splitting in the State.

‘Gross insult to voters’

Mr. Thackeray had further said that the current political scenario was “a gross insult to the voters of Maharashtra”.

After the Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction joined the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena government led by Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde, the MNS started a signature campaign across the State asking the public to express their outrage over the latest political developments where leaders rampantly compromised ideologies for the sake of power.

Following its rout in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election and its general decline in the State’s politics, the MNS had changed its ideological direction by veering towards ‘Hindutva’ politics, signalled by Mr. Thackeray’s adoption of a saffron flag incorporating Chhatrapati Shivaji’s royal seal or ‘Rajmudra’ in 2020. 

Since then, the MNS has inched ever closer to the BJP in an attempt to seize the ‘Hindutva’ space from the Shiv Sena led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray – the common adversary of Mr. Shinde’s faction, the BJP and the MNS.

While the latest turn of events has led to speculation about the estranged cousins — Raj and Uddhav Thackeray — coming together, both leaders have maintained a studied silence on the matter.