Raj Thackery desperate to salvage MNS in Maharashtra poll run-up

In a desperate attempt to salvage his party following its disastrous performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, MNS chief Raj Thackery has started drawing up some absurd plans for Nashik ahead of the assembly polls. Ironically, his "blue print" for the city's development, which is to be showcased as a model for urban development, includes ideas like exploring the possibility of introducing a tram service.Thackeray has a special fondness for Nashik ever since his Shiv Sena days, when he commanded the loyalty of local youths and had even tried at floating a placement outfit to provide jobs for the "sons of the soil". After he broke away from the Sena to for MNS in 2006, his loyal followers switched over accordingly. The next year, the MNS won 12 seats in the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and in the 2009 state assembly polls, it won 13 seats, including three from Nashik city.Subsequently in the 2012 NMC elections, the MNS emerged the single-largest party, winning 40 out of the 122 seats.Until then, having nothing to lose, Thackeray used to vent his ire at all other parties that had tasted power. But all that changed in 2012, when the MNS forged an alliance with the BJP to wrest power from the Sena.After coming to power in the NMC, Thackeray and his boisterous lieutenants promised to be different. Thackeray pledged that he would personally visit Nashik every month to review the civic governance. In June 2013, he visited Nashik and issued an ultimatum to his subordinates in the NMC to clear the garbage, debris and encroachments within two weeks. He said that he would return in July to inspect the job assigned. However, he remained too busy to keep his word.The inertia was also evident while handling Thackeray's pet project, Goda Park, as the NMC took two years to perform the bhoomi puja for its revamp by a private entity.Meanwhile, there was no visible improvement in civic governance. For instance, the MNS appointed division-wise contractors in all six municipal divisions, changing the policy of having a single contractor for the whole city and ignoring the demand for ward-wise contractors. The result was that three out of the six divisional committees of the NMC passed resolutions demanding the scrapping of the garbage contracts for failure to perform.Even mayor Wagh had to physically intervene in a quarrel between two contractors refusing to lift garbage on the pretext that the spot was not in their respective jurisdictions. Besides, Godavari continued to flow murky and the NMC was compelled to display signboards on the river banks to warn pilgrims.The MNS started feeling the pinch in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, when rival parties started pointing out its failure in managing civic affairs in Nashik. Thackeray excused himself by asking his detractors to wait for five years, till his party completed its first term in the NMC.The results of the Lok Sabha polls shattered the party's dreams of making a debut in Parliament. Now, with the assembly polls due in October, the challenge faced by the MNS is not just to improve its performance, but also struggle for survival. It has created the immediate need to showcase some achievements in governance in Nashik, which is the only place where the MNS is in power.With nothing to showcase even two-and-a-half years after coming to power, the situation has triggered wishful thinking and bizarre promises being doled out by Thackeray. These include making Nashik a WiFi city, privatisation of crucial civic installations like Dadasaheb Phalke memorial, planetarium, pelican park and Nehru Udyan. And, of course, the possibility of running trams in Nashik city, notwithstanding the fact that the tram services introduced during the British period in Mumbai were discontinued in the 1960s.At a time when metro trains and mono-rails are in vogue, the thought of introducing trams appears to be antiquated. The NMC does not even run the local bus service like its counterparts in other cities.