Raj Thackeray’s Equidistant Policy Baffles Analysts

Raj Thackeray’s equidistant relationship with political leaders across the political spectrum in Maharashtra continues to baffle political analysts. His meeting with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis at the CM’s official residence, followed by his son Amit Thackeray meeting up with senior BJP leader Ashish Shelar the very next day, has been raising eyebrows in political circles. Even after officially joining stage with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray, there is no official announcement of the same and Raj continues to hold parleys with Eknath Shinde’s pointsman Uday Samant. Though the first foray of the Thackeray brothers in the BEST credit society has been a cropper, their political strength in the civic polls, cannot be ignored. Incidentally, despite meeting with the CM, Raj continued to be in unison with his cousin Uddhav Thackeray on the issue of raising discrepancies in the electoral rolls that has been strongly flagged by Rahul Gandhi.  The Congress unit from Panvel has found 85,211 duplicate voters in the electoral rolls. Uddhav Thackeray too has asked his cadres to scrutinise the electoral rolls for discrepancies to prevent electoral setbacks. That the brothers are raising the same issue as raised by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi hints at the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) warming up to join the bandwagon of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition. At this juncture, Raj Thackeray’s public meet-ups with leaders from both sides is being viewed as pressure tactics to secure a better deal for himself at the bargaining table for the upcoming polls. Though the MVA coalition has decided to fight the forthcoming local self-government elections separately, Raj Thackeray’s oratorical skills, which commands strong public turnouts at election rallies, could serve as a handy tool for both coalitions.