Raj Thackeray takes U-turn, says won’t contest assembly elections

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navanirman Sena ( MNS) Chief Raj Thackeray, who had announced in May that he would contest himself, did a U-turn on Sunday and said he would not contest the assembly polls.

“If I decide to contest from one particular constituency, I would be spending a lot of time there and would not be able to tour all over the state to campaign for my party. I think entire Maharashtra is my constituency so I will field candidate all over but I would not contest myself,” Raj announced speaking to a group of reporters on Sunday.

Raj Thackeray’s MNS contested eight LS seats. But most of his candidates lost their security deposit as they failed to secure even 10% votes. On Sunday, Raj also supported CM Prithviraj Chavan’s decision to boycott the Prime Minister’s event in Nagpur. “Any political leader would have done the same thing that the CM has done,” Raj said.