Maharashtra elections 2024: Marathi pride, range of basic issues make MNS manifesto

Raj Thackeray, president of Maharastra Navnirman Sena, presented the manifesto on Friday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray has come out with an ‘action plan' that focuses on various issues, sectors and Marathi Asmita (pride). He said fulfilment of his manifesto will be a precondition for those who would want him to support their government.

Thackeray released the manifesto five days ahead of the Assembly elections polling on Friday. He also released a document that has listed his party's achievements since it was founded in 2006.

"Many have released their respective manifestos saying they will do this and that, but we have told the people what we will do and how we will fulfil our promises. MNS is now 19 years old. We have also informed the people about what we have done and how we have done it," said Thackeray, adding that he had come out with a blueprint of Maharashtra's development in 2014.

"I was ridiculed when I presented the blueprint. The BJP-Sena alliance broke the day I presented it. So, it was not given much attention [by the media] then. Nobody even bothered to ask me what was there in the blueprint in the past 10 years. I have included many things from the blueprint in the 2024 manifesto," said Thackeray whose party is contesting over 130 Assembly seats independent of any alliance.

He said the issues are the same and problems haven't changed in the past 10 years. "We are still debating the same issues," he stated further.

The manifesto

The first part of MNS's manifesto deals with basic needs like food, drinking water, law and order, women's safety, public health, primary education, child care/development and employment among others. The second part includes transport, electricity, communication, growing urbanisation, solid waste/sewerage/stormwater management, water management, open spaces, the environment, biodiversity, and the internet. The third part focuses on industry/commerce policy, good governance, agriculture, tourism and vocational education. The fourth part is about the Marathi pride, the use of the Marathi language in daily life/transactions, digital form and global platforms, and the conservation of historic forts and traditional sports. Each issue has been given a solution.

For example, Thackeray said all of Mumbai's dumping grounds should be closed, and the sites far from the city without human habitation should be identified. The garbage should be carried by railway wagons to these dumping yards instead of the present system of truck transport, he said, adding that, for this a dedicated railway corridor will have to be built.

When asked, he said that if anyone wanted his support post-election, fulfilling the MNS manifesto would be a precondition. He said the current elections were unprecedented in the state's political history. He said the people should keep in mind defections and unholy alliances made by the people they had voted for in the last elections.

He said his manifesto didn't have welfare schemes like ‘Ladki Bahin Yajana' and ‘Mahalakshmi Yojana', because he first thought of the overall financial strength of the state government before making any such promises. "Such promises are meaningless. It is a gift if they continue without burdening the state economy. And if they continue (without giving a thought to the growing financial burden), I will say it is a ‘bribe'. I'm happy that women get some money from the government," he said, asking to assess the possibility of creating bigger problems through distribution of money.

Thackeray informed that his rally proposed to be held at Shivaji Park on November 17 has been cancelled, because the government hadn't yet given permission for it. The Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena has also applied for permission to hold a rally at Shivaji Park on November 17, which is the late Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray's death anniversary.

2006
Year MNS was founded