Thackeray cousins' alliance won't make any difference to Mumbai politics: Nirupam

Mumbai, Aug 22 (PTI) Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam on Friday said the result of the BEST Employees Credit Society election showed that an alliance of the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and MNS president Raj Thackeray will not have any impact.

A joint panel of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena faced a wash-out in the election earlier this week. The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Undertaking (BEST) is the transport and electricity supply wing of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.

"The election has shown that even if the Thackeray brothers, who have abandoned Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology for power and who frequently change their stand, come together, it will not make any difference to Mumbai's politics," Nirupam told reporters here.

The two parties tried to create a Marathi Vs Hindi divide for votes, he alleged.

"They had also claimed that the 'Thackeray brand' would guarantee their victory. But these claims fell flat, as they could not win even a single seat out of 21. With 83 per cent voter turnout, 12,000 BEST voters rejected the Thackeray brothers," Nirupam said.

"There is only one brand in Mumbai, that of Hindu Hriday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray," he asserted.

In the minds of Marathi people in Mumbai, after Bal Thackeray it is Shiv Sena chief and Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde who has the rightful place, Nirupam said, calling Shinde the "true inheritor of Balasaheb Thackeray's ideology." Mumbai is an inclusive city and anyone who tries to create a linguistic divide here will be decisively rejected, as the BEST election has shown, he further said.

"The MLAs and MPs of Sena (UBT) were elected on Muslim votes. That is why Marathi voters have distanced themselves from them," Nirupam claimed. PTI PR KRK