Shiv Sena-BJP's poll promises to Maharashtra

Mumbai: The Shiv Sena-BJP combine has released its manifesto for the Maharashtra Assembly elections and it's a clear attempt to checkmate Raj Thackeray, with a focus on the Marathi vote.

Raj Thackeray had emerged as a major spoiler for the saffron allies in the Lok Sabha elections. He cost them all six Mumbai seats which went to the Congress-NCP. Now, they don't want to take any chances.

And so the sons-of-the-soil agenda hijacked by Raj, is now written large, all over the Sena-BJP manifesto.

We Marathi: Target MNS:

• A new housing policy which will provide homes for just Rs 5 lakhs to locals
• 80 per cent jobs for local unemployed youth
• The Shivaji statue commissioned by the Congress-NCP to be completed in five years
• February 21 to 27 to be celebrated as Marathi Day
  

And Uddhav Thackeray is clear on the saffron alliance's primary target.

"Voting for Raj Thackeray is like voting for the Congress. The recent Lok Sabha polls have proved this. He does not target the Congress-NCP because he knows they will pick him up like a rat by its tail and toss him into jail. He has already experienced it," said Uddhav Thackeray, working president, Shiv Sena.

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Where Raj Thackeray figures prominently, the failures of the Congress-NCP are also highlighted:

We Marathi: Target Cong-NCP:

• On price: The Sena-BJP promise to freeze the prices of the five essentials
• On rural distress: Farm loan waivers and an end to load shedding
  

Promises that will now be tested on October 13.

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