Nitesh Rane’s controversial tweet on Gujaratis could consolidate the Shiv Sena-BJP’s support base among them in Mumbai in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
This has come at a time when the Congress leaders from the state are unsure of repeating their party’s performance in Mumbai for a number of reasons this time.
The Congress had checked the Shiv Sena-BJP combine in Mumbai in the last two Lok Sabha elections. In fact, it had won Mumbai South, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai Northwest and Mumbai North on its own and its ally NCP had won the Mumbai Notheast seat in the 2009 general election. “This time, we expect to win three of the total six seats in Mumbai,” the Congress insiders predicted.
A BJP MP said Nitesh Rane’s tweet would not only help the BJP-Shiv Sena in the coming elections but would bring non-Marathi speaking people closer to us across the state.
Nitesh is the son of the Congress leader and Maharashtra minister Narayan Rane, strong chief ministerial aspirant in the party. While the Shiv Sena-BJP combine has already started enrolling youth in the voter’s list and is focusing on booth and block management, the ruling Congress-NCP combine is confident to defeat the Opposition on the support of minorities, dalits and Maratha vote bank.
But the ruling combine’s growing proximity to builders, contractors and land mafia may affect the polls besides the anti-incumbency factor, they feared.