Maharashtra Assembly election 2024: BJP's Kalidas Kolambkar to contest from Wadala constituency for ninth time

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Kalidas Kolambkar, an eight-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA), offered advice to fellow legislators, saying, "If you do politics wholeheartedly and serve the public, it can go up to the ninth term."

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Kolambkar from the Wadala seat in Mumbai for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024.

Kolambkar, who switched from the Shiv Sena to Congress and then to BJP, has not lost a single election since 1990, reported news agency ANI.

"If you do politics wholeheartedly and serve the public, it can go up to the ninth term. In my area, history shows that no legislator gets re-elected for a second time. But I've been MLA here since then. My name will go into the Guinness Book of World Records," Kolambkar told ANI.

He added, "Work and serve the public. If you ask people around here who will become the legislator, they will say 'Kalidas.' People ask me what spell I've cast on the public--what should I tell them?"

"My political guru was Balasaheb Thackeray," he said. "I worked with the party when Balasaheb was there. My parents gave me birth, but it was Balasaheb who gave me birth in politics. That's a fact."

Commenting on the Shiv Sena's split into two factions, he said, "We worked day and night to expand the party. I will never forget Balasaheb. They [the current leaders] failed to handle the party. It was a mistake."

The Maharashtra Assembly Election 2024 is scheduled for November 20, with the counting of votes for all the 288 constituencies set to take place three days later.

The opposition alliance Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprising Congress, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), aims to regain power in the state against the Mahayuti alliance, which includes BJP, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and NCP, headed by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar.

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