Shiv Sena (UBT) earlier said it would contest in the civic polls alone. (File Photo/Sankhadeep Banerjee)
After the Shiv Sena (UBT) led by Uddhav Thackeray made a U-turn and talked about an alliance in other parts of Maharashtra for the civic body elections, other alliance partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi have said it will depend on what their workers want.
On Monday, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut said their call about going solo in the civic elections was limited to Mumbai. “In Mumbai, the scenario is completely different. The Shiv Sena (UBT) has been in BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) for years…”
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Raut, however, said since the constituents of the MVA want to fight civic elections together, the Sena was also in favour of it. “The MVA will face the civic elections unitedly,” he said.
On his part, NCP (SP) spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, “Our MVA alliance was basically for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. We have succeeded in the Lok Sabha elections and failed in the Assembly polls. Had we also succeeded in the Assembly election, this question would not have arisen”.
Tapase said party chief Sharad Pawar has also given the local units the autonomy to decide whether to contest within the alliance or go solo. “Our experience of civic polls to date is about fighting against the Sena. If the Sena thinks it can fight the elections on its own, then it is best left to it. We don’t want to say anything. As regards fighting elections in other parts of the state, the decision will be left to the party leaders and karyakartas. In every district, the scenario is different,” said Tapase.
Tapase said the civic body elections are a different ball game altogether. “The Lok Sabha and Assembly elections relate to electing representatives for the state and central levels while the civic elections are all about ordinary party workers. Therefore, the decision will be taken based on the local situation. Wherever we think it is possible to have an alliance, we will have one. If it is not possible, we will fight against each other.
“Like the MVA, the situation of Mahayuti is also similar. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena are going to lock horns. There is already a dispute going on between the two over guardian ministership. They are attacking each other sharply. So, we can expect them to go against each other in the civic elections,” he added.
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Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said they would take a decision once the date for the Maharashtra civic body polls is announced, adding “the alliance cannot be based on one party’s convenience”. “There has been no discussion for an alliance for the civic elections. We had the INDIA bloc for Parliament elections and MVA for Assembly elections. The civic elections have not been announced so far. We will take a decision by eliciting the views of local leaders and party workers once the elections are announced,” said Londhe.
“If one party thinks by going solo, it will benefit in a particular election and by going in alliance in other elections, this is not done. Loss and profit should be shared at all levels when parties are in alliance,” he added.
A senior Congress leader said even in Mumbai, the MVA is going to fight unitedly. “When the elections are announced, we will take a decision,” the Congress leader 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
