Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will contest upcoming municipal and zilla parishad elections on its own, said senior party leader and MP Sanjay Raut.
Raut said that INDIA bloc and MVA were meant for Lok Sabha and assembly elections respectively.
He further pointed out that when there is an alliance, the growth of the party gets affected as party workers do not get opportunities to contest from the seats that are given to alliance partners. Hence, Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur and other local body elections alone without an alliance.
#WATCH | Nagpur, Maharashtra: Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut says, "It is the responsibility of the Congress party to save the INDIA alliance. Congress is the biggest party. It is true that the INDIA alliance was formed for the Lok Sabha elections and after the elections not a… pic.twitter.com/n39NcOFGiJ
— ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2025
Party chief Uddhav Thackeray has been meeting party activists to analyse its humiliating defeat in assembly elections. Party leaders and activists suggested that Shiv Sena (UBT) should go it alone in the upcoming local body elections so that new and young leadership can be created at the grassroots and municipal corporation and council level.
Shiv Sena (UBT) won only 20 seats of the 90 it contested in the recent assembly election in Maharashtra, as part of the MVA alliance
Many former corporators of the Shiv Sena (UBT) have, reportedly, expressed displeasure over being sidelined in the party and they are in touch with BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Uddhav Thackeray has taken a stand that those who want to leave the party are free to go and no effort would be made to stop them.
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Raut also blamed the Congress leadership, saying no meeting was held to analyse the reasons for the defeat and the Congress, which claimed to be the big brother, should have taken the initiative to hold a meeting.
Efforts to reach senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar for a comment did not succeed as he did not answer the call. With Shiv Sena (UBT)'s decision to contest municipal elections on its own, political observers are wondering if it is the end of the MVA experiment.
In fact, within the Congress, there appears to be a tussle going on between Wadettiwar and state Congress president Nana Patole about who should be the leader of the Congress legislature party.
NCP's Sharad Pawar faction MP Dr Amol Kole has criticised both the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), saying the latter has not yet woken up from deep sleep.
