Ahead of Maharashtra Elections next year, the opposition parties have been planning to form a mega alliance against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) being the major opposition players.
According to sources, two senior NCP leader during a meeting with Congress suggested to include Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the alliance. However, Congress is reluctant because they fear that their Hindi-speaking voters will be reduced.
Earlier, there have been many political episodes where NCP supremo Sharad Pawar has praised Thackeray. Also, a few months ago, Raj Thackeray interviewed Pawar in Pune and it was observed that their ideological difference with the ruling Modi government is similar.
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Leaders from NCP are of the view that the coalition with MNS will have a positive impact on 25 assembly seats across urban areas of the state including Mumbai, where Congress and NCP have a limited presence and especially if Shiv Sena and BJP decides to contest elections together.
In an already declared pre-poll alliance, Congress and NCP are trying to get like-minded opposition parties on board in order to defeat BJP. However, after NCP leaders proposed to form a coalition with MNS, Hindi-speaking Congress leaders including Sanjay Nirupam objected to the idea.
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According to sources, Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said that if they include MNS in the mega-alliance, Congress might lose the share of its North Indian voters. However, until now, there has been no official response from Raj Thackeray regarding this.