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Nagpur: The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has decided to go it alone in the coming elections of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). The decision was taken at a two-day introspection meeting held at Ravibhavan here on Tuesday and Wednesday. A few select aspiring candidates were also interviewed in view of the proposed structure of Prabhags. The NMC polls this time are being conducted by Prabhag system.
The two-day MNS “Manthan” was attended among others by Sanjay Chitre, Pradesh Vice President of Mahila Sena Rita Gupta, Pradesh General Secretary Hemant Gadkari, City Unit President Pravin Barde, Vice President Prashant Pawar, Division President Ajay Dhoke, Corporators Shravan Khapekar, Vijaya Khobragade, former Corporator Vikas Khobragade, and others.
In the meeting, suggestions to draw a strategy were sought from office-bearers of city and district units of the party and workers. The party decided to highlight the BJP’s failure to carry out development of city as well as failure of main opposition parties – Congress and NCP – to take up the issues of people’s interests. The party further decided to take the failures of three parties to the people’s courts in an effective manner.
The party leaders also sought opinions and suggestions from workers regarding the chances of candidates in the 4-member Prabhag system as well as strength and weakness in each and every ward. The party also pondered over the winnable candidates that could be fielded in the crucial election.
The MNS Chief Raj Thackeray is likely to address a public meeting in the near future to create favourable atmosphere for the party. The city office-bearers were asked to prepare groundwork for this public meeting.
The 2-day introspection meeting also witnessed dissenting mood of some workers over neglect of party by top leaders. According to sulking workers, the top leaders sitting in Mumbai do not bother to visit city for months together. The communication is widening and morale of activists is on the lower side. The meeting also hinted changes in the executive.
Notably, no matter how much show off the party makes the bitter reality is that MNS has no presence in the city worth the name. The candidates in the fray are left to decide their own fate.
