Mumbai: The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which was looking to bounce back this election after being in a slump for the past ten years, hit a new low this year. 

The party was unable to get a single MLA elected in the Maharashtra Assembly for the first time since the party was formed in 2006. It contested from 128 seats across the state, of which 26 were in Mumbai. 

In comparison, the MNS damaged the Shiv Sena (UBT) in just two seats in Mumbai. One was Bhandup West where the Shiv Sena (UBT) lost to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena by 6,964 votes, while the MNS polled 23,335 votes in third place. 

The other was Ghatkopar West, which the Shiv Sena (UBT) lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 12,971 votes, while the MNS stood third with 25,862 votes.

“We had internally expected the party to win at least eight to ten seats across Maharashtra, of which we were hoping for at least three to four wins from Mumbai,” a senior party functionary told ThePrint. 

Raj Thackeray on Saturday in a message on social media platform ‘X’ called the verdict “unbelievable.”

In a major blow to the party, Raj’s son Amit Thackeray came third in Mahim—the traditional bastion of the undivided Shiv Sena—losing to both factions of the Shiv Sena in the fray. This is also the seat where Raj Thackeray’s residence, Shiv Tirth, is located.

Mahim saw a triangular fight between the MNS’s Amit, incumbent MLA Sada Sarvankar of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’s Mahesh Sawant.

Amit lost by a crushing 17,151 votes, and lagged behind both Sarvankar and Sawant. Sawant clinched the seat with a slim margin of 1,316 votes.

Other seats that the MNS was hoping to win in Mumbai were Sewri and Worli, both considered strongholds of the undivided Shiv Sena, both of which the Shiv Sena (UBT) pocketed.

In the Sewri assembly constituency, where the ruling Mahayuti had backed the MNS and even campaigned for its candidate Bala Nandgaonkar, the MNS lost to Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Ajay Chaudhari by 7,140 votes.

In the Worli assembly constituency, the MNS was up against incumbent MLA Aaditya Thackeray from Shiv Sena (UBT) and Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Here, the MNS’s Sandeep Deshpande came third, after Aaditya Thackeray and Deora, losing by a massive margin of 43,957 votes. Deora who came second, trailed Aaditya Thackeray by 8,801 votes.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the MNS had supported the Mahayuti—which comprised the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—without contesting a single seat. It did not enter into any pre-poll alliance for the assembly poll. 

In this election, Raj slammed all major political parties in the state for “going against people’s mandate and engineering alliances for power”. He also slammed the Mahayuti as well as the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), for “not developing the state’s major cities”. The MNS, however, throughout the campaign, went soft on the BJP. 

The MNS’s journey so far

The MNS was born in 2006 after Raj rebelled against Shiv Sena founder and his uncle Bal Thackeray and walked out of the party after his uncle decided to install son Uddhav as his successor. 

The party drove the undivided Shiv Sena’s original agenda of “fighting for the sons of the soil”, nearly matching the aggression of the Sena, and saw some quick success in its early years.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, it fielded 11 candidates, none of whom got elected, but the party got the people to take note by damaging the Shiv Sena’s prospects in many seats. In the assembly elections that year, the MNS contested from 143 seats, and got 13 MLAs elected into the Maharashtra Assembly in its very first attempt.

Soon after, however, the party’s fortunes dwindled. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the party fielded 10 candidates, all of whom lost their deposits. In the assembly elections, the MNS ambitiously contested from 219 of 288 seats, forfeiting deposits in 209 seats, and winning just one. 

While the party opted to sit out the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it contested 101 seats in the Maharashtra elections, and once again won just a single seat.

This time, the sitting MLA, Raju Patil from Kalyan West, too could not guard his seat, losing it to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Rajesh More by a fat 66,396 votes.

(Edited by Radifah Kabir)

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