Sanjay Raut claims Sena (UBT) will centest 23 Maharashtra Lok Sabha seats

Sanjay Raut/ File Photo

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, stated on Friday that his party intends to contest 23 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats. Raut referred to discussions held prior to the INDIA opposition bloc meeting in Delhi this week, during which Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders met with Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, stated a report in PTI.

The PTI report quoted Raut saying, "We'll contest 23 Lok Sabha seats as we've traditionally done." Raut was referring to Shiv Sena's historical participation in this number of seats. The Shiv Sena (UBT) is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, allied with Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, all of whom are associated with the INDIA coalition.

Raut declined to specify the Congress and NCP's seat allocations, stating that due to decision-making complexities within the Maharashtra Congress leadership, these discussions will take place in Delhi. He emphasised the importance of Delhi's involvement because local leaders lack sole decision-making authority.

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"The seat-sharing has almost been decided. That (talks) will take place in Delhi because there is no single (Congress) leader in Maharashtra to make decisions and if there are leaders they don't have the authority to make decisions. They have to again ask Delhi," Raut added.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Shiv Sena contested 23 Lok Sabha seats in collaboration with the BJP, winning 18 of them. Following the party's split last year, 13 of the successful candidates sided with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Raut on Rajouri terrorist attack

Earlier today, Raut commented on the Rajouri terrorist attack; he compared it with the Pulwama terror attack in 2019 and questioned the motive of the Union government after this attack.

"Yesterday's terrorist attack in Poonch is a repeat of the Pulwama attack. The govt is sleeping. Do you(BJP) again want to do politics on the sacrifice by our jawans? Do you want to seek votes again in 2024 as you did in 2019 after the Pulwama terror attack? If we ask questions about the Poonch incident, then they will throw us out of Delhi or the country," an ANI report quoted him as saying. He further alluded to the Parliament security breach and said that the miscreants had intruded into the Parliament but the government was unaware.

With agency inputs