Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray
The BJP has urged
Raj Thackeray not to contest the national election, due by May. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief has been told that his party will only end up dividing anti-Congress votes.
Senior BJP leader
Nitin Gadkari reportedly met Mr Thackeray for lunch at a Mumbai hotel on Monday and told him that he should either stand down and help the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in the Lok Sabha polls, or put up candidates in the fewest seats possible. Sources say as part of the deal, the MNS leader may be welcomed into the BJP-led coalition for the Maharashtra assembly polls, due in October.
Mr Gadkari later told reporters, "I told Raj Thackeray if he contests, then the anti-Congress votes will be split. We don't want the Congress to benefit by the MNS. I appealed to him to either stay away from the Lok Sabha polls or help our candidates. If MNS contests, then they should do so in as few seats as possible."
The BJP's long-time ally Shiv Sena is upset about the meeting.
"If a senior leader from BJP supports Raj Thackeray or Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), it will affect our grand alliance," Shiv Sena's Sanjay Raut said today.
The BJP reportedly sent its senior leader Devendra Fadnavis to mollify Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, Raj Thackeray's cousin, last night.
The Sena has always resented the Maharashtra BJP's overtures towards Raj Thackeray and may not be open to any arrangement that would see the MNS join the BJP-led coalition.
Raj Thackeray broke away from the Shiv Sena in December 2005 to set up his own party, and made a strong debut in the Maharashtra election in 2009, winning 13 of 288 seats and becoming the cause of BJP-Sena's defeat in some 55 seats.
In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Raj Thackeray was said to have walked away with 15 per cent of the opposition votes and this is something the BJP wants to avoid at all costs.
The MNS and Shiv Sena have been each others undoing in polls due to their almost identical appeal. Like the Shiv Sena, the MNS has built its support base on regional chauvinism and has targeted migrant workers from other states.