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The Uddhav faction of Shiv Sena on Saturday announced that they will fight the municipal corporation elections in Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur and other municipal corporations, zilla parishads and panchayats alone, in a huge setback to the INDIA bloc in Maharashtra.
Announcing the decision to go solo, Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said, “In an alliance, workers of individual parties don’t get opportunities, and it hampers organisational growth. We will contest on our strength.”
Raut further said that they were unable to even appoint a convener for the INDIA bloc in Maharashtra.”It isn’t good. As the largest party of the alliance, it was the Congress’s responsibility to convene a meeting,” Raut said.
Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance was founded under the leadership of Uddhav Thackeray of the Shiv Sena (UBT), Sharad Pawar of the NCP(SP) and Sonia Gandhi of the Congress in 2019. This alliance came into existence after Uddhav decided to walk out of the NDA alliance. The MVA alliance, along with other regional parties like Trinamool Congress and DMK, came together to form the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Hitting out at senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar for blaming allies following MVA’s loss in the Maharashtra Assembly election, Raut claimed that there wasn’t a single meeting of the INDIA bloc after the Lok Sabha elections ended last year.
Meanwhile, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) supremo Prakash Ambedkar today claimed that Uddhav Thackeray’s decision to break away from MVA alliance was taken in the interest of his son Aaditya.
This announcement comes days after Nationalist Congress Party (SP) chief Sharad Pawar heaped praise on RSS in a rare instance. The veteran leader lauded the RSS’s methodology and its Hindutva campaign behind BJP’s sweep in the state assembly elections held in November last year.
Addressing a party event in Mumbai, Pawar criticised his party workers for being complacent after the MVA put up an impressive show in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
