The MVA constituents have declared to contest the Maharashtra assembly polls together….reports Asian Lite News
A Congress leader on Sunday said winnability would be the main criteria for seat-sharing among the MVA constituents for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls and it will be worked out amicably at the earliest.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), is already in the poll and campaign mode, having held a joint meeting of their office-bearers on August 16, state Congress working president Naseem Khan said.
“Winnability would the basis for seat-sharing among the allies and it will be worked out amicably at the earliest,” he said.
“The Lok Sabha poll results will surely be replicated in the assembly elections,” Khan said, expressing confidence of the MVA’s victory.
He claimed that false promises and fake narrative of the ruling ‘Mahayuti’ (comprising the Shiv Sena, BJP and NCP) have been exposed.
“Development has reduced and corruption has increased during their tenure. The state government has worked to weaken Mumbai and Maharashtra, farmers suicides have gone up,” he charges.
The MVA constituents have declared to contest the Maharashtra assembly polls together.
A meeting of the MVA allies was held on August 16 in which Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray demanded the alliance declare its chief ministerial face in advance without waiting for the scorecard of each constituent in the assembly elections, due in October-November.
The MVA trounced the Mahayuti alliance in the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year by bagging 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, with the BJP losing 14 constituencies of the 23 it won in 2019.
On August 20, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray will participate in a programme to be organised in Mumbai by the state Congress to mark the birth anniversary of former prime minister late Rajiv Gandhi.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will also attend the programme, to be held at the Shanmukhananda Hall here.
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, who was invited for the event, will not be able to attend it due to prior engagements, Khan said.
Mumbai is the birthplace of Rajiv Gandhi. He ushered in the IT and telecom revolution and lowered the voting age to 18 years, said Khan, who was recently nominated to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) as a special invitee.
Shinde opens up on split with Uddhav
Calling his decision to part ways with Uddhav Thackeray in 2022 as the right move, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said on Sunday that if he had stayed with him, then the party would have broken and even the symbol ‘Dhanushbaan’ would be destroyed.
Shinde said that it is the party head’s job to stand behind his workers as they are the one who strengthens the party.
On being asked whether he ever felt accused of his step, Shinde said, “Because the situation was created like that. If we had stayed there with them, then the party would have broken, the party would have ended. And even the symbol of Dhanushbaan would have destroyed. Because if the workers of the party are not there, then how will the party survive? If the head of the party has the responsibility to unite all of us, to advance our party, our policies should be such that people should benefit from the party.”
“The party workers strengthen the party. So when a worker is in trouble, then to stand behind him is the job of the party leader. So we saw that someone else was running the party and someone else was leading. And the incidents that I told you about, they were trying to finish us. If we had remained like this, what would we have done?” Shinde added.
The Maharashtra CM also mentioned that If the united Shiv Sena at that time had an alliance with the BJP, then their ideology would have been fine and they all would have been united.
Further, on being asked why he went to Guwahati after parting ways with Uddhav Thackeray, Eknath Shinde said that it was his strategy.
“That was our strategy. I went there openly. I didn’t hide. I went there while talking to them. I got Uddhavji’s call. I went there while talking to him. He challenged me a lot. He said, come and show me. You have to go from Worli to Mumbai. They will do this, lakhs of people will come, they will block the roads, bloodshed will happen, MLA people will not be allowed to go to Vidhan Bhawan. I said, look, I am also a worker of Balasaheb Thackeray. I have been a hard worker since my childhood. I have dedicated my life to party, party, party. So I don’t want all this,” he said.
Speaking on allying with Ajit Pawar-led NCP, Eknath Shinde said that after seeing the work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Ajit Pawar decided to join the Mahayuti Alliance.
“When I saw the work of PM Modi, the way PM Modi is moving the country forward, doing development, he is moving the developed India forward. So all this development, and seeing the development of the country, and the work of our government, today Ajit Pawar has come with us. Now he is working with us. What do people want? People want fast decisions. So we are the people who make fast decisions,” he said. (ANI)