05 April,2024 10:10 AM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Sanjay Raut/ ANI screengrab
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut asserted on Friday that all 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra belong to Maha Vikas Aghadi and not exclusively by any single constituent. His comments came in response to Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat's worry about the Uddhav Thackeray faction releasing candidates for seats that were still being debated, including the Sangli seat, reported ANI.
Raut told reporters in Mumbai, "All the 48 seats in Maharashtra belong to Maha Vikas Aghadi and not particularly to Shiv Sena (UBT) or Congress. Shiv Sena (UBT) has a clear vision of winning all the seats in the MVA."
Commenting on Thorat's statement, Raut, a member of the MVA negotiation committee, told ANI, "Some people could be furious about Shiv Sena having a Sangli seat... Amravati and Kolhapur were our seats, but we explained to our workers... If some Congress people are furious in Sangli, then it is the responsibility of top leadership to explain them...We will try our best to win Sangli's seat."
Thorat previously claimed to ANI in March that the Sena should not have announced candidates for Mumbai South Central and Sangli. "These were still being discussed."
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According to the report, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena has nominated Anil Desai for the Mumbai South Central parliamentary seat and Chandrahar Patil for Sangli. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar, announced seven Lok Sabha candidates on Thursday.
The party has nominated Suresh Mhatre for the Bhiwandi seat, and Bajrang Sonawane will run for Beed in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024.
Supriya Sule has been nominated for the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency, where she will contest against Sunetra Pawar, wife of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. Sule has been the MP for the seat since 2009, the report added.
Maharashtra's Lok Sabha Elections 2024 will be held in five phases: on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. Vote counting will take place on June 4.
Maharashtra, as the second-largest contributor to the lower house of Parliament after Uttar Pradesh, has a substantial impact on national politics due to its political diversity and electoral influence. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won the most seats (23), followed by the Shiv Sena (undivided) with 18, the report added.
