UBT names 17 nominees, leaves 2 in city for Congress

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday officially released its first list of 17 candidates for Lok Sabha polls. It included four out of the six seats in Mumbai, leaving two to Congress as part of MVA’s seat-sharing arrangement. Before Shiv Sena split, it had three MPs from Mumbai, while Congress had none.
The Sena (UBT) announcement prompted a team of Congressmen to rush to Delhi for talks with the leadership in a bid to force Uddhav Thackeray to reconsider the decision to field candidates in Sangli and Mumbai South Central — seats Congress has been keen to contest.Pawar’s NCP is eyeing 10 seats and Sena 22, which will leave Congress with 16, while the national party is targeting 18.
More cracks were visible in the alliance as potential ally, VBA, also announced candidates for eight seats in Vidarbha.
The Sena (UBT) list comes two days after Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with Sharad Pawar. All five sitting MPs in the party from Mumbai South, Thane, Ratnagiri, Parbhani and Dharashiv (Osmanabad) were renominated. In Mumbai, three of its four candidates — Amol Kirtikar, Sanjay Dina Patil, Anil Desai — are new faces.
Upset over UBT list, Cong netas head to Delhi to meet leadership
Releasing its first list of 17 candidates for LS polls, Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday picked wrestler Chandrahar Patil for Sangli, where Vishal Patil’s name was announced by state Congress chief Nana Patole earlier. Vishal Patil is a descendant of former CM Vasantdada Patil.
Congress was also keen to contest Mumbai South-Central for which Sena (UBT) has picked Anil Desai. In Congress, city chief Varsha Gaikwad was an aspirant for the seat, which was represented by her late father Eknath Gaikwad in 2009. The Sena (UBT) announcement leaves Congress with only two seats in Mumbai. And if Thackeray goes ahead and fields Vinod Ghosalkar from Mumbai North, it will have only Mumbai North Central to contest in the city.
Sena (UBT)’s announcement has clearly upset Congressmen. A Congress leader said it is possible that its candidates for both seats may contest as independents. Sangli Congress MLAs Vishwajeet Kadam, Prithviraj Patil and Vikram Sawant met party chi ef Mallikarjun Kharge, K C Venugopal and Mukul Vasnik in Delhi to discuss the issue. They were accompanied by Vishal Patil. Kadam said the Sangli leaders have proposed that Congress should allow them to contest the seat against Sena (UBT) and BJP.
UBT’s presence in Sangli is negligible, he added. More cracks were visible in the alliance as potential ally, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, also announced candidates for eight seats in Vidarbha after pro longed negotiations with Congress, Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP) broke down. Ambedkar had attended Rahul Gandhi's rally in Mumbai.
Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut sought to defend his party’s stand on seat sharing with Congress, saying, “I don’t think there have been any repercussions in Congress. Congress also released its list from Delhi. Ramtek was a winning seat for us for 25 years. But we didn’t object, same for Amravati, we gave it to Congress. Kolhapur was our prestige seat, we left it to Shahu Chhatrapati on a Congress seat.” He said his party zeroed in on Sangli because “in 2019 Congress didn’t fight that seat. It was fought by Swabhimani Paksha.”
Sena (UBT) has also picked veteran ex-MP Chandrakant Khaire over its opposition leader in the Legislative Council Ambadas Danve for Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Raut said the party will contest 22 seats in all from Maharashtra.