Raj takes Maratha space, Uddhav looks to north Indians

Who is the bigger champion of the Maratha cause, the Maharashtra Nava Nirman Sena (MNS) or the Shiv Sena?

MNS chief Raj Thackeray wants to make it amply clear through his statements against north Indians that it is his party and not the Shiv Sena, whose working president Uddhav Thackeray, is trying to woo north Indians.

The reason for this is clear. After the delimitation exercise, the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Mumbai and neighbouring Thane district has increased considerably. This is especially true in Thane, which has seen a population explosion, and satellite towns of Thane, Mira-Bhyander, Kalyan-Dombivali and Navi Mumbai.

This region will now send 10 members to the Lok Sabha against the earlier eight and 65 members to the Assembly as against 46. This will be a deciding factor in determining who rules Maharashtra when the state goes to polls next year.

According to rough estimates, north Indians are the deciding factor in at least 20 Assembly segments and that's why all political parties, including the Shiv Sena, are trying to woo them.

Recently, Uddhav Thackeray attended a function to celebrate the foundation day of Uttar Pradesh and asked north Indians not to consider themselves outsiders and celebrate Maharashtra Day with equal fervour.

All these developments and today's United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) rally, which was essentially a Samajwadi Party show, provided a perfect opportunity to Raj Thackeray to up the ante against north Indians.

Even before the 2004 Assembly elections, the efforts of Uddhav Thackeray, who launched the "Me Mumbaikar" campaign for accommodating all other linguistic minorities in the Sena's fold, were spoiled by the men of Raj Thackeray, who was then in the Shiv Sena. Raj-controlled Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena (BVS) activists beat up some Biharis who had come to give interviews for jobs in the railways.

However marginalised and fragmented, there is a definite Marathi constituency in Mumbai and its adjoining areas and with even the Sena trying to woo north Indians, a sizable section of the Marathi-speaking population will turn to the MNS, say political observers.

Raj Thackeray may get some sympathy and votes even from the city's sizable Gujrati community, which fears becoming politically irrelevant.