MNS faces major setback after failing to win a seat

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS chief Raj Thackeray ran a vigorous campaign in the state Assembly elections specifically targeting the Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA and more significantly his cousin Uddhav Thackeray Despite this the MNS has not won a single seat in Maharashtra Political analysts feel that the future of the party is now at stakeMNS had fielded candidates in a total of 125 seats for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra In Mumbai the party had not put up any candidates in 10 of the 36 constituencies and because of this there were speculations that the MNS chief was trying to help Mahayuti candidates contesting from these seatsAt the start of the election campaign the MNS chief had also said that the Bharatiya Janata PartyMahayuti would return to power A few hours after it became apparent that the alliance was heading for victory Thackeray posted his reaction on X stating ldquoUnbelievableThatrsquos it for nowrdquoMany responses to the tweet by Raj Thackeray suggested a RajUddhav Thackeray alliance for the future of MaharashtraIn 2009 MNS had contested the Assembly elections and won 13 seats with a vote share of 571 per cent but after that the political graph of the party has only seen a decline In the 2014 and 2019 Assembly elections the MNS vote share in Maharashtra was 315 per cent and 225 per cent respectivelyIn 2014 Sharad Sonavane from Junnar constituency won on an MNS ticket becoming the lone legislator from the party Similarly in 2019 Raju Patil from Kalyan Rural constituency was the sole MLA to win the Assembly poll on an MNS ticket The vote share of MNS in the 2024 Assembly elections is 155 per cent its lowest so farlsquoFuture looks uncertainrsquoPolitical analyst and Senior Assistant Editor at Lokmat Sandip Pradhan said ldquoThe future of MNS looks uncertain as Raj Thackeray despite vigorous campaigning has failed to secure any seats In the past political parties within the Maha Vikas Aghadi have used him for their own advantage and now the Mahayuti alliance seems to be following the same strategy With the BMC Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections approaching MNSrsquos situation could worsen Both Raj and Uddhav Thackeray have yet to realise that lsquobatenge toh katengersquo is not just a political slogan Rather than coming together for shared objectives they have continued to attack one another while their respective party workers are eager for collaboration and a unified approachrdquoA political expert who has been following the Shiv Sena and MNS closely and who did not wish to be named said ldquoNot winning a single seat in the Assembly elections is a major setback for the party and this also raises questions over its survival The other big defeat for Raj Thackeray in this election was also the fact that he couldnrsquot even get his son elected from the Mahim Assembly constituency which is also the area he had been staying in for decades The BJPMahayuti has done exceptionally well and will use the results to win in the BMC polls making it extremely difficult for MNS to win seats there toordquo137No of seats in state MNS fielded candidates forMNSrsquos performance in key constituenciesMahim Amit son of Raj Thackeray secured 33062 votes coming in third position and losing by 17151 votesWorli Sandeep Deshpande secured 19367 votes to come in third losing by 43957 votesBandra East Trupti Bala Sawant secured 16074 votes and was in third position losing by 41634 votesDindoshi Advocate Bhaskar Parab secured 20309 votes He came in third losing by 56128 votesBhandup Shirish Sawant came in third with 2555 votes and lost by 54419 votesThane Avinash Jadhav secured 42592 votes and was in third position He lost by a whopping 77781 votes