Will Raj Thackeray join the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance?

After a show of strength in south Mumbai, Raj Thackeray ensured that he will be in demand for the next state elections in Maharashtra. But will he choose to ally with the BJP and Shiv Sena?

According to Nikhil Wagle, editor of IBN-Lokmat, Raj’s agenda behind holding such a large rally was to display his political strength to the BJP.

“Raj Thackeray is trying to overtake the Shiv Sena and up to certain limit he has succeed. He is now trying to overtake the BJP,” Wagle told CNN-IBN.

“The BJP and Shiv Sena want him to be with them, because they have realised that they can’t fight the 2014 Assembly election without Raj Thackeray,” he added.

Wagle said that if the BJP, Shiv Sena and MNS join hands for the 2014 Assembly elections it could upset the Congress-NCP alliance in the state.

With the protest rally, Thackeray was attempting to show he was the more powerful than the Shiv Sena and BJP, he said.

“Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS is a formidable alliance which can definitely pose a challenge to Congress and NCP. So, the Shiv Sena and BJP need him,” Wagle said.

Thackeray held up traffic in south Mumbai for most of the day yesterday as an estimated 40,000 persons participated in a protest march and later attended a speech by him, in which he criticised state Home Minister RR Patil and the Mumbai police commissioner. He also blamed the violent riot in Mumbai on 11 August on ‘outsiders’.