To expand his political base in the run up to the National as well as State level elections, Raj Thackeray has decided to tour the Vidarbha region… his weak spot in Maharashtra. 2 days before his tour, Gopinath Munde dismissed MNS as a potential threat for the Shiv Sena – BJP combine. Adding to that Mumbai Police’s gag order disallowed MNS to have “Jahir Sabhas” during Thackeray’s visit. Most political observers were expecting the tour to flop given that Vidarbha has a sizable number of Hindi speaking populace.
Contrary to the expectations, most of the Thackeray Sabhas have got a spontaneous response from Vidharbhites… especially the younger audience. As Anna Hazare said in “महाराष्ट्र कोणाचा?”, a program on Saam Marathi, a Marathi TV Channel – “Raj understand the language of the youth and hence has an instant connect with voters in the 18-35 age bracket”
In Vidarbha, Thackeray lambasted the industrialization that has failed to give employment to local people but has attracted “outsiders”. Surprisingly, this time the “outsiders” are really outsiders. Wardha Power Project by KSK Ventures has given a contract to a Chinese company called SEDC. Usually in such projects the top management and engineers are Chinese while the labour is from the local area. But in this particular project even the bricklayers and the grass cutters are Chinese! Though the local media has been vociferous about the issue, no political party was ready to take it up. Thackeray obviously saw the potential and has raised the anti-Chinese banner. Whether this translates into votes next year is a question that only time will answer.
In Vidarbha, Thackeray lambasted the industrialization that has failed to give employment to local people but has attracted “outsiders”. Surprisingly, this time the “outsiders” are really outsiders. Wardha Power Project by KSK Ventures has given a contract to a Chinese company called SEDC. Usually in such projects the top management and engineers are Chinese while the labour is from the local area. But in this particular project even the bricklayers and the grass cutters are Chinese! Though the local media has been vociferous about the issue, no political party was ready to take it up. Thackeray obviously saw the potential and has raised the anti-Chinese banner. Whether this translates into votes next year is a question that only time will answer.
3M wonders - Is MNS’s new slogan “Hindi-Chini Bhai Bhai”?
Do you have any local media links?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDear Raj,
ReplyDeleteTake intellectual and practical steps to make marathi respectable. Take social issues like education for all, Sustainable developement of agriculture, Empower rural youth by giving work to their hand, Rural and urban pre-planning.......Developements and progress follows where their is good approch (roads), intellecttual power (work-force), Resorces (infrastructure and water)........people come to u having whooping energy only divert it for right cause............with u.......always.
That's what I did for the first two years after establishing MNS... but nobody gave a damn... People notice when my boys beat up bhaiyyas... then I play to the gallery!
ReplyDelete