Lok Sabha elections 2024: Gave seats we won five times to partners for sake of alliance, says Uddhav Thackeray in Sangli

Uddhav Thackeray. File Pic

Amid friction in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over Sangli Lok Sabha seat, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said his party left seats which it had won five times for its partners for the sake of the coalition, reported news agency PTI.

Addressing a rally in Sangli for his party candidate Chandrahar Patil, Uddhav Thackeray exhorted voters not to allow division of votes in the fight against autocracy, reported PTI.

Sending a warning to the BJP, he said all days are not the same and exuded confidence that the INDIA alliance would win 300 seats in Lok Sabha elections 2024.

Congress leader Vishal Patil, who is the grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister late Vasantdada Patil, is in the fray as an independent. The BJP has fielded sitting MP Sanjaykaka Patil.

"We left Ramtek seat which we won five times consecutively. We left Kolhapur seat for Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj. We also left Amravati because the alliance was not just going to benefit me alone, but also our allies," Uddhav Thackeray said, reported PTI.

Amravati, Ramtek and Kolhapur seats are being contested by the Congress, part of the MVA along with Thackeray's outfit and the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (SP).

Thackeray's remarks come amid Sharad Pawar admitting earlier in the day that the candidate for Sangli Lok Sabha seat was announced without consultation between MVA constituents.

Thackeray also assured local Congress leaders that his party will not stand in between their future, an indication that Shiv Sena (UBT) will not stake claim over its traditional seats in the district.

Thackeray also said had the BJP not betrayed him, he would have stayed with them.

However, Maharashtra was being looted and he did not want to be party to it so walked out of the alliance with the BJP, Thackeray claimed, reported PTI.

Big ticket projects that were to come up in Maharashtra, like Vedanta Foxconn, Drugs Bulk Park and International Finance City, got shifted to Gujarat, the former chief minister alleged amid ongoing Lok Sabha elections 2024.

(With inputs from PTI)