Political Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai
Mumbai, Apr 21: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who was one of the first political leaders to propose Narendra Modi's as PM candidate back in 2011, and who later toured Gujarat to convince and congratulate its people on how lucky they were to get a political personality like Modi as CM, now seems to have taken a complete U-turn from his earlier stand.
Across Maharashtra, the MNS chief is attracting huge crowds to his rallies. Interestingly, neither he nor his party is contesting this Lok Sabha election. Then whom is asking for votes for? No one! He never tells people who to vote for, but bluntly asks the crowds not to vote for the BJP. He especially cautions people against the BJP's 'two-man' army of Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.
His rallies are drawing huge crowds, especially because of his innovative style of campaigning. He puts up three huge screens, and plays videos of PM Modi when the latter promised several things before the 2014 general election. He also displays videos of Modi's recent speeches and some fact-checking videos of his promises, implementation and result.
His Marathi speech videos have become a huge hit in social media, and full speeches from all his rallies on YouTube are trending on a daily basis.
"The reason I have chosen this kind of campaign is that no other leader should dare to make fake promises to the people simply to garner votes. Modi must see his videos now and regret his lies": Raj Thackeray opens with this remark in almost every rally.
Known for his oratory skills, and his striking similarity to his late uncle and Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray, the MNS chief's audio-visual presentations at the venues to pep up his speeches are laced with humour and sarcasm.
Interestingly, BJP has not strongly commented or planned any counter-attack to take on Raj Thackeray so far, but according to political analysts, this kind of campaign could make a huge dent to BJP's prospects in Maharashtra, and even though he does not seek votes for the NCP or the Congress, it might ultimately help the opposition.
The recent remark of Thackeray at a rally that if people could experiment with Modi, why couldn't they do so with Congress president Rahul Gandhi, has sparked speculations that these rallies could in fact be indirectly sponsored rallies of NCP and Congress who are jointly fighting the LS election in Maharashtra.
Raj Thackeray speaks on a range of issues: Rs 15 lac promise to each citizen, 2 crore employment generation per year, Pulwama tragedy and Balakot surgical strikes, Modi’s surprise visit to Pakistan, the Goods and Services Tax (GST), and the controversy over the Rafale jet fighter deal. His common refrain is that the people must choose between democracy and 'dictatorship'.
But demonetisation and its aftermath are his key topics in every rally. He displays videos of how Modi emotionally asked people give him 50 days for the situation to normalise. He hits out at PM after playing the video in public. He even gets loud applause from the crowd when he compares PM's speech and the ground reality.
While speaking about the Pulwama attack, he displays a video of the PM asking first time voters to dedicate their votes to the heroes who carried out the Balakot airstrikes. "From where did so much of RDX come from that resulted in the killing of our 40 jawans? Modi should answer this. Who invited Nawaz Sharif to his swearing-in ceremony? Who went to Pakistan uninvited to celebrate Nawaz Sharif’s birthday and fed him the cake? Imagine how the families of our martyrs must be feeling," he told the gathering after the video display.
But a senior Maharashtra BJP leader defends Modi saying the PM took decisions such as demonetisation and GST to put the economy on track and that had 'hurt' some people. "Traditional politics has a certain set up and those who suffered due to note ban will obviously raise a hue and cry. I cannot find any other reason why [Thackeray] is opposing the Prime Minister now," he said.
Raj Thackeray admits that he had backed Narendra Modi for PM before 2014. But within six months he realised that he was not the same Modi who he had supported.
Raj Thackeray's recent tweets: