Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) sounded an alarm to the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance in Maharashtra by coming to the fore in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections and affirming its growing popularity in not only urban areas but also in few other pockets in the state.
Political analysts said the MNS felt that this trend would also send tremors among other political parties.
The MNS candidates gave jolts to Sena-BJP alliance candidates in seven of the eight urban constituencies, barring Kalyan, where the Sena could get a slender lead, and paved way for Congress-NCP victory.
Two MNS candidates -- Bala Nandgaonkar (south Mumbai) and Hemant Godse (Nashik) -- finished runners-up with an impressive vote tally of 1,59,729 and 2,16,661 respectively, while in other constituencies the party nominees ended up third.
In south Mumbai, Nandgaonkar (MNS) was trailing Milind Deora (Congress), who got 2,72,411, while Mohan Rawle (Sena) 1,46,111.
In other five constituencies like Mumbai North, North West, North Central, North East and South Central, the MNS candidates were placed third.
In north Mumbai, Shirish Parkar (MNS) was placed third with 1,47,502 votes. Sanjay Nirupam (Congress) was the front-runner with 2,55,157 votes, while veteran BJP leader and former Union minister Ram Naik (BJP) got 2,49,378.
In north west Mumbai, Gurudas Kamat (Congress) polled 2,53,920 votes, while Gajanan Kirtikar (Sena) 2,15,533 and Shalini Thackeray (MNS) polled 1,23,885.
In south central Mumbai, Eknath Gaikwad (Congress) secured 2,57,523 votes, while Suresh Gambhir (Sena) got 1,81,817 and Shweta Parulekar (MNS) 1,08,341.
In north central Mumbai, Priya Dutt (Congress) polled 3,19,352, while Mahesh Jethmalani (BJP) got 1,44,797 and Shilpa Sarpotdar (MNS) 1,32,555 votes.
In north east Mumbai, Sanjay Patil (NCP) got 2,13,505, while Kirit Somaiya (BJP) 2,10,572 and Shishir Shinde (MNS) polled 1,95,148 votes.
In Nashik, Samir Bhujbal (NCP) polled 2,38,693, while MNS candidate Hemant Godse got 2,16,661 and Sena's Datta Gaikwad got 1,58,239.
In Pune, MNS candidate did not fare well comparatively as he polled 55,120 votes.
In neighbouring Thane district too, the MNS secured 18.31 of an aggregate 38 percentage of votes and established its presence in the district, the analysts said.
Considering its performance in the just-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the MNS could deal a major blow in the assembly elections due in October.
I feel Congress-NCP government acted smartly after the non Marathi episode by not taking any action against Raj as they very well knew that MNS can cut the votes of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Congress-NCP new that MNS is not capable of winning lot of seats but they knew that Raj can make a big hole in Shiv Sena's vote bank.