Mumbai, July 19 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray has questioned the rationale behind the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance if mistakes like delays in finalising seat-sharing agreements and selecting candidates during the 2024 Maharashtra assembly elections are repeated.
He emphasised that the euphoria following the MVA’s impressive performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections morphed into individual egos focused on securing party-wise victories during the assembly elections, ultimately leading to their defeat.
In an interview with Saamana, the mouthpiece of Sena (UBT), Thackeray lamented that his party had to concede constituencies it had previously won multiple times to its MVA partners during the Lok Sabha polls.
“The seat-sharing parleys (during assembly polls) dragged on till the very last minute. The squabbling (among MVA partners) sent the wrong message about us among the people,” he said.
During the polls, candidates were not decided in certain constituencies, the former chief minister recalled.
“It was a mistake which has to be rectified. There is no point staying together if such mistakes are to be made in future,” Thackeray said.
He suggested that the race to announce sops during the assembly polls put the MVA, comprising Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Congress, at a disadvantage.
There are discussions taking place regarding the “EVM scam”, the bogus voters list, and the rise in the number of voters during the assembly polls. There were deceptive schemes such as Ladki Bahin, which affected the poll prospects, Thackeray told Saamana’s Executive Editor and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut.
But it is not right to shy away from accepting the mistakes, he said.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the MVA won 30 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra. Five months later, the Mahayuti alliance handed a crushing defeat to the opposition bloc, restricting the collective tally of Sena (UBT), NCP (SP), and Congress in the 288-member House to 46.
While the BJP clinched the highest 132 seats, the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde won 57 and NCP headed by Ajit Pawar 41 in direct contests against the rivals Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), which secured 20 and 16 constituencies, respectively. PTI PR NSK
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