Maharashtra: Shiv Sena (UBT) Declares 17 Lok Sabha Candidates, Sanjay Nirupam Urges Congress Leadership To Break Alliance

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday (27 March) declared 17 candidates in Maharashtra for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections despite Congress' claim on many of these seats.

Most of these seats had a winning candidate from the undivided Shiv Sena in the 2019 elections. However, Sangli and Mumbai North East were won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Shiv Sena also declared candidates in Sambhajinagar (earlier Aurangabad), where Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM won and Raigarh, where the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won.

According to Indian Express, Congress wanted Mumbai South West, Bhiwandi and Sangli for itself. Congress had named Vishal Patil for Sangli, but Shiv Sena (UBT) nominated wrestler Chandrahar Patil.

Similarly, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam wanted to contest from Mumbai North, but the Shiv Sena (UBT) named sitting MP (now in Eknath Shinde-led Shive Sena) Gajanan Kiritkar's son Amol Kirtikar.

After the announcement, Sanjay Nirupam urged the Congress leadership to break the alliance with Shiv Sena "to save the party" as Shiv Sena has taken an "extreme stand".

"This will cause a huge loss to Congress. I want to attract the attention of Congress leadership to intervene. The decision of an alliance with Shiv Sena will prove self-destructive for Congress," he added.

However, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut denied the existence of any disputes over the seat-sharing and cited the instance of Congress declaring a candidate for Ramtek, a seat that Shiv Sena wanted.

He said, "Kolhapur was our seat but since Shahu Maharaj had decided to contest on a Congress ticket, we have no problem. We don’t have a candidate in western Maharashtra and that is why we have decided to contest the Sangli seat."

All sitting MPs got tickets including Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Omraje Nimbalkar from Osmanabad (Dharashiv), Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani, Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South and Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim.

The party will be contesting on 22 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state, according to Raut and the remaining candidates will be announced in a day or two. Shiv Sena (UBT) plans to contest Palghar, Hatkanangale and Kalyan-Dombivli.

It will also field a candidate in Mumbai North, a seat won by the BJP in the 2019 elections. Notably, Union Minister Piyush Goyal is the BJP candidate from Mumbai North, replacing sitting MP Gopal Shetty.