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AMN

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has announced “unconditional support” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for the Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing the Gudi Padwa rally from Mumbai’s Shivaji Park, Thackeray also announced that the MNS will not contest for Lok Sabha polls but asked his supports to be ready for Maharashtra Assembly elections which are due later this year.

“I don’t want Rajya Sabha or Vidhan sabha, I told Fadnavis. I told them, I have no expectations and no conditions. My full support support for Modi, BJP, NCP (Ajit Pawar), Sena (Eknath Shinde),” he said.

The MNS leader’s meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s last month sparked speculations that he might join join the Mahayuti – an alliance of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction in Maharashtra.

“For the last one and a half year, CM of Maharashtra has come to me and days to me, we should work together. Fadnavis too said the same thing. So I went to meet Amit Shah to understand what was the proposal… We spoke of seat distribution. The last time I sat for negotiations was in 1995. I don’t have the temperament of negotiations,” he added.