MNS grabs headlines, misses the ballot

From slapping shopkeepers to stirring language debates, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) keeps grabbing headlines—but not seats.

Transcript

00:00The Maharashtra new son Sena was in action again.

00:08The party is called Maharashtra Navnirman Sena but their electoral record shows no signs of

00:12any kind of Navnirman. When it comes to drama and chaos however, the M&S sure knows how to stay in

00:17the headlines. Like this incident from Mumbai where they slapped a shopkeeper or this one at SBI's

00:22Devpur branch in Dhule where a bank employee was slapped for not speaking Marathi or the time they

00:27slapped a DMAT employee. The list goes on. But put it next to M&S's electoral performance,

00:32it's the party that appears to get a smack. The M&S was founded by Raj Thakere in March 2006

00:37after he left Shiv Sena due to differences with his cousin Uddhav. In the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly

00:42elections, the M&S won 13 seats in the 288 member house. But things went downhill fast. By 2014,

00:49the count had crashed to just one seat and stayed there in 2019. In 2024, the party couldn't even

00:55open its account. The story gets worse when it comes to Lok Sabha elections as the M&S has never

01:00won a single seat in its entire history. Thakere's critics say he can or should put the enthusiasm of

01:05his Sena to better use. If the Karyokartas are made to look beyond the vacuous language debate,

01:09the M&S can help more pressing issues come to light, perhaps.