Tough road ahead for Raj Thackeray! After poll setback, EC may derecognise MNS as State party

It must be a very tough time for Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS), which is on backfoot after the party got only single seat in Maharashtra assembly election. Not only that, in a double whammy the Election Commission on Monday "censured" Thackeray for his reported remarks against non-Maharashtrians. The Commission pulled him up and asked him to be more circumspect in his public utterances in the future.

He will face another salvo from the Election Commission which will further aggravate his cup of woes in coming days. Report says that the party may be derecognised after it got only 3.1 per cent of total votes polled in the assembly election. A party is entitled to be recognised as a State party only when it receives six per cent of the total votes polled in particular State.

In 2009 assembly poll MNS had got 13 seats

The MNS may be outstripped with its official symbol a railway engine which was received by party in 2009 assembly election. Though a small releif is that commission will give some more time to MNS to improve the stature and the performances. The EC will not take immediate step in the direction.

"The EC takes a decision about de-recognition of recognised political parties on the basis of the votes polled and seats won by them. In case of the MNS, it may be de-recognised as it has won just one seat in the state and the percentage of the votes cast in its favour is also less than what is needed for a recognised political party. A decision on this will be taken after studying all the factors and even after it is de-recognised, MNS will continue to be a registered state party", Dilipkumar Khatri, Deputy Election Officer from Mumbai Suburbs as quoted by Mid Day said.

Unlike this time when MNS has got only one seat, in 2009 the party had got 13 in 288 seat assembly. Because of the good performance of the party which received more than three per cent votes in last election, it was recognised and was also given a permanent symbol by the EC.

But this time it had to bite the dust as people preferred BJP and Shiv sena the most. It's aggression not at all worked. People voted for development, prosperity and rejected hate campaign like plank completely. Apart from facing rout in stronghold Nashik, all big faces of the MNS like Bala Nandgaonkar, Nitin Sardesai, Praveen Darekar and Shishir Shinde got defeated.

If the election commission will derecognise them it will really be like an end of the road for Raj Thackeray-led MNS.