BJP tide is rising today, may ebb tomorrow: Raj Thackeray

Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray said on Thursday the ebb and flow of power in politics is natural, and the BJP must remember that its tide is rising today, but tomorrow its popularity may ebb.

Thackeray was speaking at the 17th formation day of his party at Gadkari Rangayatan in Thane on Thursday evening. Thackeray is being courted by the BJP to play a supporting role in snatching power in the civic bodies in Mumbai Metropolitan Region, but Thackeray has ruled out a pre-poll alliance and decided to contest civic elections on its own.

Crediting the BJP for its political ethic and tenacity in working through decades of being in the opposition before snatching the thumping majority in the 2014 elections, Thackeray reminded his party workers how the BJP has been contesting elections since 1952, then as Jana Sangh, and gradually emerged as the leading opposition party, then formed a 13-day government on a slender majority, and eventually a coalition government led by Vajpayee in 1999, and then won the full majority in 2014.

“I am not saying the MNS will take so many years to come to power. I am only underlining the long struggle and hard work that the BJP has put in,” he said.

Taking a dig at the political compulsions of the BJP and Eknath Shinde government stuck in a legal tangle and the delay in civic elections, Thackeray said “It feels as if I have flunked the SSC exams when the topic of civic elections comes up. When one asks when will the civic polls happen, they say March. When March arrives, they say October. When October arrives, they say probably March next! Whenever the civic election happens, we will be in power.”

Thackeray said the citizens are fed up with other political parties, and would not hesitate to give a chance to MNS. “But, it is important that we reach out to voters. I will address public meetings in your constituencies, but you have to go house-to-house and win the trust of the voters. We are not too far away from power,” he said.

A refurbished website of the party was launched on the occasion. Thackeray is scheduled to address another rally on March 22 in Dadar.