Mumbai: Former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Uddhav Thackeray, in a meeting of the office bearers of the MVA parties on Friday, said that the alliance must enter the election arena after announcing the name of its Chief Ministerial candidate. He said he will back any candidate announced by Congress and NCP(SP) as CM face of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
“After our experience of alliance with BJP, we are of the view that we should not follow the policy of CM post for the party with the most number of MLAs in the alliance. In several past elections, with an alliance with BJP, we have experienced that to make the maximum number of MLAs, parties themselves try to put their other allies’ candidates down. So I will not be in favour that the party with the most number of MLAs should get the CM post,” he said.
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Friday 31 Jan. 2025
Uddhav Thackeray also said the Maharashtra Assembly elections will be a fight to protect the self-respect of the state. He said the system of announcing the Chief Minister from the party which won most seats encourages internal conflict. He said he wasn’t fighting the elections for himself but for the benefit of Maharashtra. “Many IAS officers calling me and requesting me to come again,” he added.
Uddhav Thackeray said that temple and Waqf lands will be protected. He demanded inquiry of land deals in Ayodhya and alleged theft of gold from the Kedarnath temple.
NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule requested all leaders of the MVA to finalise seat sharing as soon as possible. The 288-member Maharashtra Assembly is going to polls later this year.
Thackeray’s remarks come amid reports that the MVA leadership is likely to appoint as campaign chief for the upcoming Assembly elections. The CM name will likely be decided after the election results in order to avoid bickering among its leaders.
Prominent leaders of the MVA constituents, the Congress, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the NCP (SP) met in Mumbai on August 16. The meeting comes days after Thackeray met Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. The Friday’s meeting was hosted by Shiv Sena (UBT).
