‘Thackeray brand wiped out’: BJP panels sweep BEST credit poll; UBT-MNS fail to win a single seat

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena (UBT) and MNS drew a blank in the first jointly-fought election since the Thackeray brothers' 'reunion'. The defeat in the BEST cooperative society election comes as a major setback and dampener for Uddhav and Raj Thackeray ahead of BMC polls as their parties had made it a prestige issue. Political observers said it indicates the reunion has been only optics so far rather than real politics and backroom teams have not worked well. The rout is particularly bad for Sena (UBT) as it controlled the credit society for close to a decade.Suggesting that the 'Thackeray brand', as it was touted, had been rejected, CM Fadnavis said, "There was no need to politicise this kind of election as it was just a credit society poll. But they politicised it by making tall claims that the 'Thackeray brand' will win. But people did not like it. The poll outcome reflected rejection by the people." He said the two panels led by Rao and Lad that swept the election belonged to BJP but stressed that Mahayuti didn't politicise the election.Sena (UBT) union leader Suhas Samant said he was surprised by the results. "I have 12,000 employees supporting our party, still we lost. This indicates the possibility of cash-for-votes, and my efforts to work in the interest of employees' welfare for so many years did not yield results. The trend was different this time," he alleged. This was denied by the rival panel led by legislators Lad and Darekar, who said BEST staffers were aware of the corruption in the society for the past many years and had "voted for change".Lad said, "BEST workers gave a fitting reply to 25 years of injustice and the 'Thackeray brand' has been wiped out." He further said, "For 25 years, individuals connected with the 'Thackeray brand' exploited this institution, weakening it financially. But this time, BEST workers, the people of Mumbai and our worker-brothers have taught them a lesson. After losing, making false allegations and spreading misleading messages is the 'Thackeray brand's' old tactic."Rao said, "We are happy to work in tandem with those from the panel led by Lad and Darekar. They will be part of the board as well."A political observer said, "The defeat with zero seats is particularly damaging for UBT and MNS as all voters are Marathi-speaking. This will be a dent to the reunion ahead of BMC polls. Sena (UBT) and MNS functionaries failed to woo credit society members on emotional issues. This also shows they were complacent and didn't hit the ground running."The observer termed the verdict "a rude wake-up call" for the Thackeray cousins, though they had not openly campaigned or held joint meetings for this poll. "This defeat indicates that Sena (UBT), which has the biggest stakes, was complacent. Their union office-bearers were not active and old office-bearers were not changed for years. Even though this was a credit society election, it was a matter of prestige since MNS and Sena (UBT) were fighting together."MNS functionary Sandeep Deshpande denied this was a litmus test. "This was a credit society poll, there is no point in drawing too many conclusions," he said.Shiv Sena (UBT) RS MP Sanjay Raut said that this was just a credit society election and was fought at the local level.