BJP will make Shinde camp cry for every LS seat: MVA

The Shiv Sena-UBT and the Nationalist Congress Party on Saturday said the Bharatiya Janata Party will make the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena "cry" for every Lok Sabha seat, the statements coming amid strife in the ruling alliance in Kalyan Lok Sabha seat represented by Shinde's son Shrikant.

On Friday, Shrikant Shinde had said some leaders were trying to create hurdles in the alliance in Dombivali area (under Kalyan Lok Sabha seat) for their own selfish politics and that he was ready to leave the seat since the aim was to ensure the Narendra Modi government returns with a thumping majority in the 2024 LS polls.

Latching on to the strain there, Shiv Sena-UBT Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut said the Kalyan-Dombivali area was a stronghold of the (undivided) Shiv Sena and the party had been winning from there for years now.

"The same seat was given to Shrikant Shinde who had no connection with the party. Uddhav Thackeray had pampered Shinde's son. Let him fight his battle. The BJP will make them (Shinde-led Shiv Sena) cry for every single seat," Raut said.

The NCP said the BJP had plans to ditch Shinde in Kalyan and eventually force all Shiv Sena leaders to contest on its lotus symbol.

"Looks like @BJP4Maharashtra has all plans to ditch MP Dr Shrikant Shinde in Kalyan Loksabha Constituency. Eventually BJP will force all others from Shinde camp to contest on BJP ticket or face permanent political isolation. @NCPspeaks," the party's spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said.

On Friday, in a bid to defuse the situation, Shrikant Shinde had said he would "back whichever candidate the senior leadership of BJP-Sena decides" for Kalyan as everyone was "working towards the BJP-Shiv Sena forming government at the Centre".

Shrikant Shinde has been MP from Kalyan since 2014.

Meanwhile, BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that Uddhav Thackeray is in such a position that he will have to accept even if the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party give his party just two Lok Sabha seats to contest in Maharashtra

Speaking to reporters in Nagpur, Bawankule said the BJP treated Thackeray like an elder brother when it had an alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena.

The BJP leader claimed that the Congress has already laid its hands on the Ramtek constituency, which was earlier with the Shiv Sena, now being headed by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Thackeray broke ties with the BJP in 2019 after differences cropped up over the chief minister's post. He then joined hands with the Congress and NCP to become the CM under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), but his government fell last year following a rebellion led by Shinde.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats of which the undivided Shiv Sena won in 18 constituencies in 2019.

“Uddhav Thackeray will have to say yes even if Sharad Pawar or Sonia Gandhi asks his party to contest on just two seats as has no other option left. It was the BJP that treated Uddhav Thackeray like an elder brother and gave him seats as per his wishes,” he said.

But now, the situation is different, he said, referring to Thackeray and MVA.

About claims that a BJP worker named Saurabh Pimpalkar is connected with the death threat to NCP chief Sharad Pawar on social media, Bawankule said the party worker had only followed the accused on Facebook. “Neither BJP nor its worker issued any threat to Sharad Pawar on social media,” he said.