03 May,2024 07:20 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sanjay Nirupam with CM Shinde. File Pic/PTI
Former Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam along with his wife and daughter on Friday joined the Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Sanjay Nirupam joined the Shiv Sena in the presence of Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.
Sanjay Nirupam joined his 'alma mater' Shiv Sena, now headed by Eknath Shinde, nearly two decades after he quit the undivided party which was his political launchpad in Mumbai.
Sanjay Nirupam had joined Congress in 2005 and was appointed as general secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. He won the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 elections, defeating BJP veteran Ram Naik by a narrow margin in a keenly fought contest.
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Sanjay Nirupam held various positions in the Congress in the last 19 years and had also headed the city unit, before falling out of grace of the party leadership.
The Congress had expelled Sanjay Nirupam last month for six years for "indiscipline and anti-party statements", days after he gave a 'one-week ultimatum' to the party over the Mumbai North-West seat, which he was eyeing.
Mahayuti will win more than 40 seats in Maharashtra: BJP leader Vinod Tawde
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinod Tawde on Friday said the Mahayuti alliance will win more than 40 seats in Maharashtra in the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
Tawde, the party's general secretary, was speaking to reporters during an informal interaction organised by the Pune Union of Working Journalists (PUWJ).
Former minister Eknath Khadse will return to the BJP, and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and the party's state unit chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule had never opposed his rejoining, he said.
Khadse quit the BJP in 2016 after almost four decades in the party. Last month, the veteran leader, who is with the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), said he would be rejoining the saffron party.
Tawde, however, said that the party's Central leadership will make the final decision about Khadse's return to the fold.
Talking about the break-up of the previous alliance between the undivided Shiv Sena and BJP, Tawade said, "Fadnavis would have been the chief minister, but he doesn't play politics of revenge. We had an ideological alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena. People allege that leaders join the BJP under pressure from investigative agencies, but in that case, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut would have joined the party long back," the PTI reported.
(with PTI inputs)
