Uddhav puts up a brave face, ignores MNS effect on poll

MUMBAI: Despite suffering a severe blow at the hands of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in the general election, Shiv Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray prefers to ignore the party led by his cousin Raj Thackeray.

Addressing the media for the first time after the polls, Mr Thackeray refused to credit the MNS with the defeat of Sena-BJP candidates. Instead, he expressed ���surprise��� that Mumbai voters had chosen the Congress despite ���July 26, 26/11 (Mumbai terror attack) and a dismal performance���.

Mr Thackeray ducked all queries pertaining to the MNS and did his best to underplay his estranged cousin Raj Thackeray���s party. Asked if the MNS would henceforth be the enemy number one, Mr Thackeray said one had to consider numbers to confer this status on a political party. ���The Congress has won maximum seats in Maharashtra and elsewhere. It continues to be the number one enemy,��� he said.

But Mr Thackeray was clearly at a loss to explain the Congress-NCP clean sweep in Mumbai in contrast to the combine���s poor performance elsewhere in the state. Mr Thackeray pointed out that the Sena had won 11 seats, one less that its 2004 tally, and lost two seats by narrow margins. ���The Sena���s success in rural Maharashtra is a vote against the Congress-NCP,��� he said.

He refused to accept a line of thought that his party lost its urban constituencies to the MNS because the Sena had focused on making inroads in rural Maharashtra.

He, however, expressed regrets over the Mumbai mandate. ���It is really disturbing that Mumbai has not elected a single Sena-BJP nominee. We will really have to find out reasons for this and we will do that before assembly polls,��� Mr Thackeray said. But he denied that the Sena had taken Marathi voters for granted. ���It is just that the voters have reposed faith in the Congress which is surprising,��� he said.

Quizzed more about the MNS factor, Mr Thackeray said the results had left a large number of voters, especially the traditional Sena voters and Maharashtrians, who had voted for MNS ���repenting over their choice���.

���I have been personally receiving such reactions from a large number of people through letters and SMS that they made a wrong choice. They are in a state of shock and feel guilty that they let the Marathi manoos down,��� he said. He was sure that all these disgruntled voters would return to the Sena fold in the Assembly polls. He even said that the Assembly polls would show who was the real voice of Marathi manoos and who a ���mere pretender���.

���It���s not necessary that Assembly polls will show a similar result. In Uttar Pradesh, everyone thought that the BJP would return to power after it won the Lucknow municipal corporation. This time, Mayawati fared badly in the wake of heightened expectations. And the Shiv Sena won the BMC polls in 2007 when everyone had written us off. Every election is different.��� He also made it clear that the Sena would contest the Assembly polls with its old ally BJP.