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This is an archive article published on January 2, 2024

‘Uddhav in touch with Congress leaders in Delhi, no squabbling over seats’: Raut nixes speculation over friction in MVA

Shiv Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said they were pushing for an early decision on seats so that it allows enough time to select probable candidates.

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

Even as MP Supriya Sule, who belongs to the Sharad Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), claims the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has finalised seat-sharing talks for the Lok Sabha polls and that the details will be announced in Delhi, the Sena (UBT) said its chief Uddhav Thackeray is holding talks with the Congress and NCP to finalise the same. The Shiv Sena underlined that it would not want to see any tension between the alliance partners over one or two seats.

Speaking to The Indian Express on Tuesday, MP and Sena (UBT) chief spokesperson MP Sanjay Raut revealed, “Our party chief Uddhav Thackeray is in touch with the Congress leadership in Delhi. He is holding a consultation with them over the seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections. Similarly, in Mumbai he shares a good rapport with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and has been in touch with him.”

Earlier, Sule said the seat-sharing formula had been finalised. “Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi held a meeting in New Delhi a few days ago. All senior leaders were part of that meeting. The seat-sharing formula has been finalised and it has been informally accepted by all. The official announcement will be made in the next eight to 10 days,” the MP said.

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Dismissing speculations of friction between the Sena and Congress in Maharashtra, Raut added, “There was no question of any quarrel with Maharashtra Congress leaders. We are not holding any discussion with them over Lok Sabha seat-sharing. We might hold a discussion with them over Assembly seats when the time comes. But as of now, we have to finalise the seats each party we will be contesting. The decision of the Congress is taken in Delhi while the NCP’s decision is taken in Mumbai where their party chief is available.”

“INDIA bloc partners will not quarrel over one or two seats. We have the bigger ambition of dethroning the BJP from the Centre. And for that we are ready to go the extra mile. Seat adjustment will not be a problem. We will keep discussing till we arrive at a decision,” he stated.

Raut said they were pushing for an early decision on seats so that it allows enough time to select probable candidates. “We have an early list of probable candidates with us, it will help to generate an atmosphere in our favour in that particular seat. It is important to get a head-start,” he said.

Last week, Raut said his party would contest 23 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and there was no question of compromising on the seat share, triggering a war of words with the Congress. He further insisted that the talks with the Congress would start from zero as the party won no seat in the state in the last general elections.

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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