Mumbai: Just five days before the November 20 state Assembly elections, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray released the party Manifesto, but with a difference, here on Friday.
Waving the inaugural copy of the new poll Manifesto, entitled ‘We Will Deliver’, Raj Thackeray said that all parties are promising what they will do, but the MNS is also saying “how” it would fulfil its promises, if elected to power.
Besides, he released a booklet on ‘What We Did’ in the nearly 19-year-long history of the MNS founded on March 9, 2006, after Raj Thackeray had quit the (undivided) Shiv Sena.
“Several points included in our Manifesto are picked up from our ‘Blueprint for Maharashtra’ released in September 2014. Ten years later, the issues are the same, the peoples’ problems remain the same and we continue discussing them even today,” said Raj Thackeray.
The MNS Manifesto speaks of four different phases that would cover all aspects of the state and its people, he added. The first phase will include all basic needs, quality of life, adequate food and water, law and order, women’s security, sports, childcare, primary education and jobs.
The second phase comprises communication, electricity, water planning, networking of cities across Maharashtra, solid waste management, sanitation, open spaces, environment, and biodiversity.
The third phase will encompass a state industrial policy, trade policy, administration and industrial control, agriculture, tourism and vocational education.
The fourth phase will cover the Marathi pride, identity, promotion of Marathi language, Marathi in daily use and in business, Marathi in the digital world, and in global business, preservation of historic forts and monuments, plus traditional sports, etc.
Fielding media questions, Raj Thackeray conceded that the ruling MahaYuti’s ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme of Rs 1,500/month is good as the women are getting some money but cautioned that there should not be hurdles in the future.
Taking a swipe at his cousin, former CM and Shiv Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray, the MNS chief said that instead of building temples in memory of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, “we need more temples of learning (schools-colleges)”.
In a sharp observation of the prevailing political scenario in the state with defections, party-hopping, break-down of parties, etc, Raj Thackeray said that this is the most unusual election ever in the state’s history — in which the MNS is contesting around 128 seats, the highest among all political parties in the MahaYuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi alliances.
“If someone is here today, he will be there tomorrow… Nobody knows who is where or with whom. The people should bear in mind that those who they voted for last time (2019), where they are today. What’s the value of your vote when someone’s here today and elsewhere tomorrow,” said an irked Raj Thackeray.
Touching upon the jobs crisis confronted by the youth, the MNS chief said, “There are many employment opportunities available in this state, but our own boys and girls are ignorant about them or lack knowledge of how to go about getting jobs”, and hence ‘outsiders’ bag these jobs depriving our people. The reference was to the MNS’ past campaigns targeting ‘outsiders’ mostly from north India, who – the party claimed – were cornering all jobs that the Maharashtrian youth were entitled to.
He said that the state was always at the top in global investments and demanded that whenever investments come from anywhere in the world, Maharashtra must get priority.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at qnajmi@gmail.com)
–IANS
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