MNS to contest 12 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra

MUMBAI - The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has decided to contest 12 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, party chief Raj Thackeray announced here Monday.

Thackeray said the party will field candidates in Nashik, Pune, Aurangabad, Kalyan, Bhiwandi, Thane and all six seats in Mumbai.

Among the candidates are his sister-in-law Shalini Thackeray, who is contesting from Mumbai North-West constituency.

When asked about the remaining 36 seats in the state, he said: ‘MNS is going alone in the polls and is low on candidates and resources. Hence it was decided to contest only 25 percent of the total 48 seats in the state.’

‘We shall announce the party’s agenda and our manifesto by the weekend.’

The MNS chief claimed that the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have entered into a secret electoral pact for the next elections.

According to Thackeray, the Sena has put up ‘dummy candidates’ wherever it is contesting against the NCP, but he did not give specific examples.

Moreover, he said that in Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s videographed speech which was played out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena rally Sunday evening, the senior Thackeray did not mention the name of BJP or its prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani

‘He (Bal Thackeray) remembered and mentioned my name in the speech, but BJP and Advani were nowhere,’ he pointed out.

Thackeray said the MNS is demanding that captured Pakistani terrorist Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab should be hanged publicly.

Thackeray said it was strange that the BJP, which is demanding the hanging of Afzal Guru the accused in the 2001 attack on parliament, has nominated well-known lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani to contest from Mumbai North-West constituency.

‘Mahesh’s father Ram Jethmalani has been defending Afzal all these years,’ Thackeray said.