Raj Thackeray’s phone talk with Modi puts MNS back in game

Shiv Kumar

Tribune News Service

Mumbai, May 19

The BJP seems to have decided to give another lease of life to Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena in order to check-mate its troublesome ally Shiv Sena ahead of elections to the Mumbai municipal corporation next year.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a telephonic conversation with MNS chief Thackeray where the latter severely criticised the Supreme Court’s decision to oversee the NEET. The MNS leader went on to say that state educational boards would become irrelevant after the introduction of NEET.

The telephonic talk between Thackeray and Modi is seen as some kind of rapprochement between the BJP and the MNS.

While the saffron party had flirted with Raj Thackeray ahead of the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2014, the poor showing by the MNS had forced the BJP to align with the Shiv Sena to form the government in the state.

However, with the BJP and the Shiv Sena sharing an uneasy relationship, the former is again seen as propping up the MNS in order to split the Marathi votes in the Mumbai civic polls.