Announcing that his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena would extend support to any political party that would address “pro-Marathi” issues raised by it in a time-bound manner, MNS chief Raj Thackeray said today that his controversial campaign against migrants would remain an election platform for next month’s Assembly polls and called for a “permit system” to control the flow of outsiders to Mumbai.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Thackeray said such a permit system may have to be extended beyond the financial capital to cover the entire state as migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were moving to western Maharashtra cities such as Sangli in search of work.

“This must happen,” Thackeray said. “There are restrictions on everything. After all, there are limitations on water supply, power supply, transportation and construction of roads.”

The MNS is contesting 125 seats in the 288-member Assembly and is expected to prey on the vote base of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance like it did in the Lok Sabha polls and ended up helping the Congress-NCP alliance.

Political observers say that the party formed three years ago would certainly open its account in the Assembly but is not likely to register a significant number of seats as its influence is limited to the urban pockets of Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Pune.

Over the last three years, the MNS has won 45 seats in civic elections across the state, including 12 in Nashik, eight in Pune and seven in Mumbai.

In the Lok Sabha elections, the MNS fielded 12 candidates and 10 of them secured over 1 lakh votes each in what came as a surprise to their rivals and ruined the chances of several Shiv Sena and BJP candidates.

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