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This is an archive article published on January 8, 2024

Shiv Sena (UBT) stakes claim to 23 Lok Sabha seats, gives green signal to candidates

Sanjay Raut said Shiv Sena (UBT) will place its demand for 23 seats in Maharashtra during the MVA meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut. (Express File Photo)Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut. (Express File Photo)

Even as the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders are set to meet in New Delhi Tuesday to discuss seat-sharing in Maharashtra for the Lok Sabha election, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has given itself a head start by giving the go-ahead to its probable candidates in 23 seats which it intends to contest.

”We have staked claim to 23 Lok Sabha seats. We have candidates for all 23 seats and given them the go-ahead,” Sanjay Raut, chief spokesperson of the Shiv Sena (UBT) told The Indian Express.

”At tomorrow’s meeting in Delhi, we will place our demand for 23 seats,” he added.

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When it was in alliance with the BJP in 2019, Shiv Sena (UBT) contested 23 seats and won 18 while the BJP contested 26. However, in the 2022 revolt, 12 of its sitting MPs joined hands with the Shiv Sena led by now Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Raut said the Sena is likely to field five of its sitting MPs. They are Arvind Swant (Mumbai South), Vinayak Raut (Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg), Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani) and Rajan Vichare (Thane).

Mumbai North-West MP Gajajan Kirtikar was the 13th defector to the Shinde Sena. The Thackeray Sena is likely to field Amol Kirtikar, son of Gajanan Kirtikar, from Mumbai North-West. ”We have asked him to gear up for the polls,” Raut said.

Though Sena (UBT) claims that it gave the go-ahead to all its probable candidates, it is finding it difficult to get replacements. It is actually testing the waters and has not openly declared its list of probable candidates.

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For instance, in the Maval Lok Sabha seat, it looks at fielding Sanjog Waghere, who recently joined the Sena after quitting the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Sena sources said that though Waghere has joined the party and is a probable candidate, the party has received feedback that he is not an aggressive leader. ”We are looking at other leaders also who can join the party. We don’t have a strong leader in the Maval area,” sources said.

Sena (UBT) earlier was looking at its former corporator Rahul Kalate to contest the Maval Lok Sabha seat, but he has declined to contest and is instead reportedly in touch with Shinde Sena.

Raut said they do not want to name the probable candidates as it would not be appropriate to do so. ”But we are confident that those we have given the green signal to are strong candidates capable of taking on the rivals,” he said.

Sena (UBT) has also decided to give up key seats which it had won in 2019 but still had a strong presence. One of them is Shirur. Here, it had won for three consecutive times. However, it lost the seat in 2019 to the NCP. ”The NCP will be fielding Amol Kolhe from Shrirur and as per our arrangement, winning matters. Whoever had won the seat last time gets a chance to re-contest the seat this time again,” Raut said.

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In Hatkanangle, where the Uddhav Sena candidate defeated farmer leader Raju Shetti in the 2019 elections, the Sena now needs a strong candidate. It might support Shetti, who recently met Thackeray in Mumbai.

”We are holding discussions with Shetti. We may support his candidature instead of fielding our own candidate. We are still in the discussion stage. Nothing can be said as of now,” Raut said.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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