Congress wants to victory cake' alone: Shiv Sena UBT

Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena UBT on Tuesday alleged that the Congress’s ego is damaging the INDIA alliance. Accusing the Congress of wanting to “eat victory cake alone”, the Shiv Sena UBT said that the party would not have lost the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan elections had it taken the help of smaller parties. The Congress should learn the importance of alliances, it said.

An editorial published in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana said that the Congress was confident of its victory in MP and that is why it did not enter into any agreement with the Samajwadi Party. “Congress wanted to eat the victory cake alone. Therefore they kept smaller parties and alliances away.

Akhilesh Yadav was systematically shunned in Madhya Pradesh. Therefore there is an allegation against the Congress that wherever the party sees the possibility of winning the election on its own, it doesn’t want to take anyone along. Its ego is also damaging the INDIA alliance,” it said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said the morale of the workers of the INDIA alliance is down after the Congress’s defeats in three state assembly elections. It said that the results in MP, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan have affected the enthusiasm about the INDIA alliance.

“There is a notion that nobody can defeat Narendra Modi and Amit Shah and it is dangerous. Such a notion is not true. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge worked hard for the victory. But had they fought elections in alliance with smaller parties, results would have been different. Congress should understand the importance of the alliance,” the editorial said.

Uddhav Thackeray had earlier said that the INDIA alliance has many options for the PM post, unlike the BJP which has no option for Narendra Modi. However, his party has now changed its stand and said that the INDIA alliance needs to decide who will be its face for the 2024 election. Merely saying that we have multiple choices is not enough, it said.