Congress Miffed With Uddhav Thackeray for Unilaterally Announcing Candidates

 Mumbai: The Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) are once again at loggerheads over the election for four legislative council members in Maharashtra. The state Congress leaders are miffed over Uddhav Thackeray announcing candidates for all four seats without discussing it with alliance partners. State Congress president Nana Patole said that Uddhav Thackeray did not even attend his phone calls.

Elections for one seat each in the Graduates Constituency of Mumbai and Konkan and one each in the Teachers Constituency in Nashik and Mumbai will be held on June 26. The biennial elections became necessary as the terms of sitting members are expiring in July.

“Uddhav Thackeray announced the candidates for the Konkan Graduates and Nashik Teachers constituencies without holding any discussions with us. We expected that the candidates and seats will be finalised only after holding deliberations with (Maha Vikas Aghadi) constituents," Patole said while speaking to reporters,” Patole said.

The Congress leader further claimed that he tried to speak to the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief over ;phone, but a telephone operator at the latter's residence kept giving different excuses every time. He said that if the Maha Vikas Aghadi contests the elections as an alliance, it will get the success as it did in Lok Sabha polls. “We are trying to make sure that we face the legislative council elections also as an alliance. If we sit across the table for discussions, everything can be sorted,” he said.

Patole further alleged that one of the candidates announced by Thackeray was actually a Congress candidate. He said he spoke to Thackeray, when the Shiv Sena UBT chief was in London. “I told him (Thackeray ) that Congress should get two of the legislative council seats. He asked me who are our candidates. I gave him names, but he announced candidates without holding any discussions with alliance partners,” the Congress leader said.

The Maharashtra Congress president said that his party had finalised the candidature of Sandeep Gulve for the Nashik Teachers’ constituency and informed Thackeray, but the latter inducted Gulve into Shiv Sena (UBT) without any discussions and fielded him as their candidate.

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Ambadas Danve said that there is a system of communication in his party. “When we want to talk to Patole, we will ourselves call him,” he said.

This is the second major friction between the two parties. During the Lok Sabha election, Thackeray had announced Chandrahas Patil as his party’s candidate for the Sangli Lok Sabha seat. The Congress was upset over Thackeray’s decision, which was announced even before the alliance’s seat sharing was finalised. Congress leader Vishal Patil contested the Sangli seat as an independent and won by a thumping margin against BJP’s sitting MP Sanjaykaka Patil. The Shiv Sena UBT candidate lost his deposit in the election.