MUMBAI: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray on Friday threw a challenge to his former party, the Shiv Sena, and expressed his desire to win the elections to the city's prestigious Municipal Corporation due next February.

The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine currently controls the Corporation. Mr. Thackeray addressed a rally at Azad Maidan right opposite the Municipal Corporation headquarters after a brief meeting with Civic Commissioner Johny Joseph. MNS cadres waving the blue, orange, white and green flags and shouting slogans braved the rain and the slushy ground and waited for over two hours to hear their leader speak.

In the first major rally after the formation of the party, Mr. Thackeray mostly focused on civic issues, such as bad roads, and commented how such a beautiful city had been ruined. The Shiv Sena-BJP was in power for 10 years but had done nothing, he charged.

He read out from the last election manifesto of the Sena-BJP and said none of the promises was fulfilled.

He urged Mumbaikars to place their faith in his fledgling party for the coming civic elections. He said he would not make too many promises but fulfil the ones he made.

The former Shiv Sainik and nephew of Sena chief Bal Thackeray said he would pay close attention to the functioning of all Municipal Corporations in the State and show how things could be done differently. He appealed to the people to give his party control over the major Municipal Corporations. He said his party was new and it should be given a chance.

Referring to Mumbai, he criticised the contractors, who built or repaired the city's roads and said he would catch hold of such people and question them.

He said he would invite television crews to record the contractors' confessions of who were the people they bribed, how much was paid and how they got these contracts etc. He would do all this so that people would know how they were being cheated.

He said the Corporation had a huge annual budget for road repairs but this was wasted.

He wanted to know why contractors could not build roads, which lasted for 15-20 years instead of less than a year.Referring to the recent bomb blasts, he said "Pakistan would perpetrate such activities but they cannot do it without help from here." There was laxity in security for the city's vital installations, he said.

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