Darekar silent about his future plans after he quit MNS in the aftermath of its assembly poll debacle.
Former MNS general secretary Pravin Darekar who had quit the party few days back is yet to decide his future course of action. Darekar who lost the assembly election from Magathane constituency was unhappy with the functioning of MNS chief Raj Thackeray and hence resigned from the party. Darekar remains undecided about which party he is likely to join and will take a decision after some days. The MNS has suffered a major poll debacle as it has managed to win only one seat from Junnar and has lost all the seats held by it Nasik. Senior party leaders had blamed legislators for the defeat while grassroot level workers said they had failed to receive any guidelines from the party leadership. Speculations are rife about Darekar joining BJP even though he has denied about it.
When AV spoke to Darekar he said, “I have not planned anything about my future. Right now, I am in a hibernation mode and will take a decision after some time.”
When asked whether he will join BJP or Shiv Sena, Darekar replied, “Currently, I have only put my papers. I have not taken any decision regarding which party I will join.”
The morale of the MNS party workers is at an all-time low. “There was a huge disconnect with the party leadership and grassroot level workers. We were confused with the stand taken by Raj Thackeray as he had praised Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha election and later attacked him in the assembly election. Many of us had worked hard in our constituencies but we were unable to convince the people” said a MNS leader.
“This time people had voted tactically and avoided the split of Marathi votes by supporting Shiv Sena which proved counterproductive for our party. We didn’t have proper plan in place to connect with the voters. Even though Raj sahib had released a blue print for Maharashtra but it was too little and too late” said another party activist.
A popular sitting legislator, Darekar was pushed to the third position behind Bharatiya Janata Party`s Hemendra Mehta.
The MNS suffered another setback after senior leader and former Nashik Central MLA Vasant Gite resigned from all party positions. There are reports that nearly half of the party’s 40 corporators in the Nashik Municipal Corporation are contemplating to quit the MNS.
Mr Gite claimed that the office bearers had resigned taking moral responsibility for the party’s humiliating defeat in the recently-held state Assembly election. However, the BJP has claimed that 15-16 MNS corporators in the city were in touch with the party.
Raj Thackeray has accepted resignations of legislators submitted to him. He won’t be asking them reconsider their decision. The party is now facing a crisis from within after its humiliating loss in the assembly elections.
