Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (UBT) announced its first list of 65 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections on Wednesday, but the release was marred by confusion as party MP Sanjay Raut admitted that the list contained “mistakes that would be corrected by soon”.
The list includes 14 re-nominated MLAs, with notable figures like Aaditya Thackeray vying for re-election in Worli, where he will take on Sandeep Deshpande of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS).
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However, the party was in for embarrassment when Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said at the press conference that the list had been released “by mistake” and would be rectified. “There will be corrections, as the list comprises some seats which were not finalised in favour of our party in the MVA’s seat-sharing negotiations,” he said.
According to reports, seats such as Uran, Sangola and Loha were under discussion with the MVA’s partners like the Peasant and Workers Party (PWP), which had staked a claim to them, but the Sena (UBT) went ahead and announced its candidates for them. Raut’s statement underlines the chaos in the party’s functioning.
Raut further added, “…we are already near century (100 seats in seat sharing arrangement)… If we hit two-four sixes, then we will complete the century. We have reached till 85. And the game is not over yet, the game is still on. There is one more day left of the game so we will take the remaining runs too,” indicating that the Sena will try to get 100 seats.
NCP’s party symbol case:
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court said it would hear a plea filed by veteran leader Sharad Pawar-led group raising the issue over the use of “clock” symbol by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday.
The application was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan. Sharad Pawar had moved the apex court against the February 6 order of the Election Commission (EC) recognising Ajit Pawar-led group as the real NCP. The EC had allotted the NCP’s “clock” symbol to the group led by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders from Nagpur will meet Uddhav Thackeray requesting a rethink over the Ramtek Assembly seat. Congress is aggressive over the seat while Shiv Sena-UBT has already announced its candidate.
