‘Will punish those who sully MNS name’

After reports of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leaders blaming their chief, Raj Thackeray, for the party’s disastrous performance in recent elections, its leaders on Saturday decided that action will be taken against any member leaking details of meetings to the media.

After a second review meeting of the party, MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar said, “We will take action against anyone who tries to sully the name of MNS,” said Nandgaonkar.

According to a source, during the first review meeting on Thursday to take stock of the party’s falling fortunes, some leaders wanted the MNS to dilute its sons-of-the-soil agenda, which was turned down by Thackeray. Instead, Raj blamed the leaders for failing to spread his message to the masses. “You should have done more hard work,” said Raj, firm on his Marathi Manoos agenda.

This infuriated many who then said it was Raj who failed to provide clear directions to his workers, the source said. They also wanted Raj to focus on wooing other communities. Their reasoning was given the cosmopolitan nature of the main cities of the state, outsiders are playing a major role in the electoral outcome.

Thursday’s incident was the first time since the launch of the party in 2006 that Thackeray had to face the ire of his leaders. Speculation is rife that more leaders may quit if the party doesn’t show any signs of revival.

The party now has just seven corporators in the Mumbai civic body, as against the 28 in the pre vious term. In the Maharashtra Assembly, there is just one MNS legislator Sharad Sonavane, com pared to 13 in 2009. In the Nashik Municipal Corporation, where the MNS had held power with 40 seats, it now has a measly three Top MNS leaders such as Pravin Darekar, Ram Kadam, Ramesh Patil and Vasant Gite, all former legislators, left the party to join the BJP.