Mumbai: Making light of the 'MNS factor' in
the February 16 Mumbai civic polls, Chief Minister Prithviraj
Chavan on Thursday said the Raj Thackeray-led party will only help
the Congress-NCP alliance by dividing the traditional vote
bank of Shiv Sena.
"I think there is a space for the so called Shiv Sena-like
mindset. A finer division of votes between MNS and Sena will
help us," Chavan said, talking to reporters here.
"Earlier, Shiv Sena had a larger share of votes compared
to MNS. Now that same vote, if shared equally by both, helps
us," he said.
"The question is whether MNS will take a whole lot of
Congress votes, a whole lot of NCP votes and a whole lot of
Sena votes," said Chavan.
The Chief Minister claimed that the MNS vote percentage
had gone up, "but not enough to make it a winner". He also
ruled out the possibility of the Congress-NCP joining hands
with MNS after the results.
To a query on what action the state government proposed
to take on Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's 'hate' speeches,
Chavan said, "I have told the law and order agencies to act
within the ambit of law on the matter."
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 09, 2012, 22:37