What would you call a person who is blessed with incredible personality and has been served opportunities in the plate multiple times, but still falls flat on his face every time? Stupid, right? But, for us, such a person is called Raj Thackeray. Well, we have certain reasons to claim the same. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray, despite being a Hindutva icon and inheritor of a legacy that is incomparable, has failed to emerge as the tallest politician and no one else but his stupidity has to be blamed for it.
Raj Thackeray- the true inheritor of Balasaheb’s legacy
Raj Thackeray learnt politics from his late uncle and Shiv Sena patriarch late Balasaheb Thackeray. He is a legitimate inheritor of Bal Thackeray’s politics in terms of personality, political oratory, and almost every other political trait. He delivers speeches in the same fashion; chants the same slogans; is a great crowd puller.
Blunt like Bal Thackeray, his style of politics does not go very well with left-liberal media establishment, like that of Bal Thackeray. Just like the late Hindutva icon, he poses utmost faith in the people, rather than other institutions like courts and legislature.
When Raj Thackeray formed the party in 2006, his core focus was Marathi Manus (son of the soil) plank, and he raised the issue of Marathi sub-nationalism and anti-immigration in even more chauvinistic way than Shiv Sena.
Read more: Fate gave Raj Thackeray an opportunity of a lifetime and he chose to waste it
On the contrary, Uddhav Thackeray who took over as Sena chief after Bal Thackeray passed away in 2012, which abandoned Hindutva and its icons, in order to grab power in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena joined the ‘secular’ parties and compromised on the issues of Marathi Manus (son of the soil plank) and Hindutva.
Raj Thackeray- one of the tallest leader in Maharashtra
Raj Thackeray could have definitely benefitted at the cost of Shiv Sena if he had deployed his strategy carefully, as the voter base of both parties is the same.
Raj’s party won 13 seats in 2009 Maharashtra assembly election out of 288, however, its tally was reduced to 1 seat in 2014 assembly election. In 2019 Maharashtra Assembly Elections too, the party was trounced with winning just 1 seat across the state. In the Lok Sabha elections too, the party could not make any electoral gain as both 2014 and 2019 general elections were swept in the name of PM Modi.
Read more: Looks, Oratory Skills, and now Hindutva: Raj Thackeray is the true inheritor of Balasaheb’s legacy
But, in the assembly elections, the vote share of the party varied between 2-4 per cent, which is fifth largest by any party. There is no denying that MNS is the fifth largest party in the state after the four major players. It is in power in a few urban local bodies and won a significant number of seats in many others, including BMC.
But still, Raj Thackeray, seemingly is nowhere in politics today.
Utterly confused Raj Thackeray wasted every opportunity
One of the reasons why Thackeray couldn’t manage to win Maharashtra is his fluctuating stand. In a blink of eye, he turns communal from secular and vice versa.
He had praised and supported PM Modi in 2014 election; later in 2019 general election, he turned to a critique, but never on the core ideological issues like Hindutva.
Post PM Modi’s comment, where he had called Rajiv Gandhi as “corrupt no. 1”, Raj Thackeray had tweeted:
“Hatred, endless lying and absolutely no qualms in transgressing the decorum of public life are the 3 characteristics that mark the term of Narendra Modi. This stands intensified with his latest statements against the late Rajiv Gandhi and the nation will definitely not pardon it.”
MNS Chief had several opportunities to throw Uddav out of political corridors but he chose to waste them. When Uddhav Thackeray led party compromised on the issues of Marathi Manus and Hindutva to ally with NCP-Congress, many young party workers had left the party.
Read more: On Jan 23, Raj Thackeray is all set to claim the Hindutva legacy of Bal Thackeray
It would have been easier for him to induct the infuriated party workers in his party and strengthen the core voter base in state. But, he chose to stay silent.
Another instance where he went numb and did not attack Shiv Sena is when it was revealed in a sensational claim that Aditya Thackeray was involved in the death of the actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his ex-manager Disha Salian.
Perhaps one of the reasons could be the fact that Raj Thackeray also shares friendly relations with the bigwigs of Bollywood due to his time with the Shiv Sena. The cordial relations within the Bollywood has perhaps stopped Raj Thackeray to give his two cents on the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation or the vendetta politics played out by the Shiv Sena against Kangana Ranaut – who despite being a Bollywood actor is fiercely anti-Bollywood.
MNS and BJP’s alliance- a threat to Uddhav
Balasaheb Thackeray, the patriarch of Shiv Sena, had allied with BJP on Hindutva grounds. Raj Thackeray too, could have followed the footsteps to ally with BJP. Such is the emotional connection of Balasaheb Thackeray with Marathi crowd, that riding on his fan base, MNS Chief Raj simply could have received decent number of votes.
Given his political acumen and popularity in the state, a merger with BJP could have helped him win more seats than Shiv Sena. And this is how, he probably could have become the Chief Minister of the state.
Few decent strategies, it was all required by MNS to keep Shiv Sena out of political corridors. Yet, the party failed to do so. Thus, Raj Thackeray is the stupidest politician in India.