In an attempt to rally his crumbling organization following a crushing rout in the State Assembly polls, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday cracked down on “indiscipline” and “extravagance” rife within his party ranks.
With his party in utter disarray, Mr. Thackeray sternly prohibited party bearers from putting up hoardings as part of their birthday celebrations, warning that such exhibition did not go down well with the people.
In a novel bid to facilitate better communication, Mr. Thackeray told party workers that he had created a separate e-mail id on which he would personally monitor problems bedeviling his party.
The MNS, which failed to open its account in the Lok Sabha polls in May, continued with its dismal showing in the State Assembly polls, winning just one seat (Junnar) compared to the 13 it had bagged in the 2009 Assembly polls.
Mr. Thackeray, speaking at the end to his five-day tour of Pune district, bore down heavily on his workers, castigating them for “failing to win the hearts and minds of Maharashtra’s electorate.”
“No indiscipline will be tolerated within the party. If any party-bearer puts up banners on the occasion of their birthday, he or she will lose their post the next day,” he said, blaming party functionaries for not reaching out to the people.
Belying the cheers that greeted Mr. Thackeray’s speech, disgruntled functionaries within the MNS told The Hindu that the party’s poor performance has put an end to the MNS chief’s pretensions of playing ‘Maharashtra’s kingmaker’ – in no small measure owing to Mr. Thackeray’s leadership style.
Mr. Thackeray experienced a string of setbacks in the prelude to the Assembly polls and its immediate aftermath as his once-trusted lieutenants Ram Kadam, Pravin Darekar and Vasant Gite quit the party, severely weakening it from within.