The Assembly poll debacle following the Lok Sabha may have added insult to injury for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, but the party’s woes seem to have just begun. The debilitating blow for the MNS may be struck by the Election Commission, which could consider derecognising it as a state party following its failure to secure 6 per cent of the votes polled in the Assembly elections.

Since it first burst onto the Maharashtra political scene, the MNS, under the leadership of an aggressive Raj Thackeray, was seen as a credible alternative to the Shiv Sena. File pic