BJP braces for blows from MNS in Mumbai seats

Already smarting under its reverses at the national level,the BJP expects a jolt from the Raj Thackeray-led MNS in some Mumbai seats in the Assembly polls,too.

There can be no two opinions that there is an undercurrent of support for the MNS. My opinion is that they may not get less votes than they got in the Lok Sabha polls. They may increase, said a BJP functionary from North Mumbai.

He added that in Assembly seats where the Shiv Sena had not put up a candidate and let the BJP contest,there was a likelihood of the Marathi voters and a section of the Sena cadre and voters gravitating towards the MNS.

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The BJP leader pointed to the Kandivali (East) Assembly segment,where the MNS fielded Vinod Pawar and made an issue of the BJP and Congress candidates,Jaiprakash Thakur and Rameshsingh Thakur,being non-Maharashtrians.

The MNS raised this issue well, he admitted,adding that the situation would be similar in constituencies in North Mumbai,where the BJP had not put up any candidate of Marathi origin.

A BJP leader added that they expected to win five seats,including Dahisar (Gopal Shetty),Charkop (Yogesh Sagar),Malabar Hill (Mangal Prabhat Lodha),Mulund (Sardar Tara Singh) and Ghatkopar East (Prakash Mehta),while the results in Ghatkopar West (Poonam Mahajan Rao),Bandra West (Ashish Shelar),Colaba (Raj Purohit) and

Malad (R.U Singh) seats would depend on the extent to which the votes of the opposing candidates was divided.

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While the BJP expects the MNS to cut into its votes in the urban areas like the Mumbai-Thane belt,it hopes the Republican Left Democratic Front (RLDF),a conglomeration of Left parties and Republican Party of India (RPI) factions,will play spoiler for the Congress-NCP in Vidarbha and Marathwada,which has a strong Dalit base.

The BJP and the Sena had together won 30 seats in the Nagpur and Amravati divisions in 2004,and a MLA from Vidarbha said they expect to win more than 34 seats from the region now. The Republican Party will be a major factor in Marathwada and Vidarbha, he added.

A BJP MLA from Marathwada,too,added that they were likely to improve their 2004 tally,due to anti-incumbency and the presence of the RPI in the fray.

He added that the presence of the RLDF in the fray would help swing some votes away from the Congress-NCP to the advantage of the Sena-BJP. However,he added that improper selection of candidates in some constituencies could hurt them in the polls.

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