Congress rebel had trounced Sena (UBT) candidate in Sangli LS seat; grand old party’s leaders deny any bad blood
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the unveiling of the statue of the late Dr Patangrao Kadam in Sangli on Thursday. Pic/X
In an indication that the Shiv Sena (UBT) hasn't taken the defeat of its candidate at the hands of a Congress rebel in the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency lightly, Uddhav Thackeray and his party leaders skipped an event in Sangli in which other senior MVA leaders participated on Thursday.
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Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, NCP-SP President Sharad Pawar and many others from MVA parties, except Shiv Sena (UBT), were in full attendance. The event was organised to unveil the statue of the former Congress minister and founder of Bharati Vidyapeeth, the late Dr Patangrao Kadam. Dr Vishwajeet Kadam, a Congress MLA, had invited the leaders.
Dr Vishwajeet Kadam said he had invited Thackeray, but the attendance was not confirmed because of the Sena (UBT) president’s prior engagements. Other Congress leaders denied any bad blood. In Sangli, Thackeray had announced the candidature of Chandrahar Patil much before the seat-sharing was finalised. Congress had demanded the seat, but Thackeray didn’t relent. As a result, Congress leader Vishal Patil, a grandson of former CM late Vasantdada Patil, rebelled and contested as an independent.
Local Congress leaders, including Dr Vishwajeet Kadam, had urged for the change amidst a war of words between his party and Thackeray’s associates. Kadam and local leaders of the MVA, except Sena (UBT), worked hard to get Patil elected and the latter, as expected, became an associate MP of the Congress.
Krishna Hegde, spokesperson, Shiv Sena (Shinde), claimed, “Thackeray has boycotted Rahul’s Sangli programme because he is upset about not being projected as the CM face or MVA’s leader by Congress and NCP-SP. Moreover, he had announced UBT’s Sangli candidate without consulting Congress. The Congress cadre gave him a crushing defeat by putting up their own candidate. Therefore, an upset Thackeray has boycotted the event. The cracks in the MVA are evident.”
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