Raut denies rumors of Sena (UBT) leaving MVA | Mumbai news

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Thursday ignored rumors of the party leaving the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) after the opposition group failed to carry forward the optimism it displayed in the Lok Sabha results.

While leader of opposition in the legislative council Ambadas Danve on Wednesday announced that a section of Sena (UBT) leaders had asked party chief Uddhav Thackeray to go on his own after an internal meeting, a day later MP and party’s chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut said the party will not be part of the MVA. He announced that he would stay.

“While some of the leaders and party workers think that we should leave the MVA after the assembly elections, decisions are not taken in a hurry in politics. We will continue to be part of MVA,” Raut said. “All three parties of the alliance are trying to review the reasons for the defeat in the assembly elections; many candidates cited EVMs as the reason behind the result.”

Raut emphasized that the current need of the MVA is to strengthen 288 constituencies in the next five years. “We will have to face local body elections, including the civic body in Mumbai, in the coming months. “The party will prepare a plan after internal discussions with its alliance partners Congress and NCP (SP).”

Danve, on the other hand, blamed Congress’s “overconfidence” as one of the reasons for MVA’s recent torment. “The picture would have been different if MVA had announced Uddhav Thackeray’s name as the face of the CM,” he highlighted.

Will Sena (UBT) go to the civic polls alone?

Regarding the plan for local body elections planned to be held next year, Danve said: “I believe that the party should call for going to local body elections alone, after evaluating the political situation in each city and district. From the state’s perspective, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha alone has an example of achieving the desired success. “We can do the same in five years.”

This occurred in 2017, when parties in the then alliance government (BJP and the indivisible Shiv Sena) contested the local body elections separately. At that time, the BJP was pitted against the Shiv Sena in the BMC elections.