MUMBAI: In a first of move of its kind, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday supported the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena’s (MNS) demand that all signboards in Maharashtra should be Marathi.
Indicating that the MNS and NCP are moving close, NCP MLA Jitendra Awhad on Monday supported the demand saying that it is wrong in the first place to ignore local languages in signboards.
Last year, Raj Thackeray had showered praises over NCP supremo Sharad Pawar’s 75th birthday. Thackeray had also recently interviewed Pawar in public. The duo also had a closed-door meeting for about an hour on Saturday and Thackeray was seen speaking out several of the issues earlier taken up by the NCP on Sunday during the Gudhi Padwa meet of his party. Now, the NCP appears to have reciprocated the feat.
The MNS workers returning home from the Sunday meeting had even vandalised some of the shops and hotels along Mumbai-Ahemadabad highway that had Gujarati signboards on them.
On Monday the MNS workers also staged an agitation at Vasai BDO’s office demanding action against illegal construction on allegedly government land. While the MNS is getting aggressive in this manner the NCP appears to be supporting it apparently in an attempt to forge new equations in the state.
Raj Thackeray who had extended unconditional support to the BJP and Modi in 2014 used to target the Shiv Sena and the NCP in his public speeches till now.
However, on Sunday he was seen targeting the BJP and the Modi and didn’t mention anything against the Shiv Sena and the NCP. The NCP feat followed by MNS gesture is seen as the one that might lead to new political equations in the state.