Maha polls:BVA chief says won’t contest elections in future

Five-time MLA from Vasai and president of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), Hitendra Thakur, on Tuesday announced that the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election was his

Five-time MLA from Vasai and president of the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), Hitendra Thakur, on Tuesday announced that the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election was his last. “I will be actively involved in politics, but will not be participating in any elections,” said Thakur at a press conference in Virar on Tuesday.

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Thakur’s son, Kshitij, the BVA candidate from Nallasopara, is pitted against former ’encounter specialist’ Pradeep Sharma of the Shiv Sena. Thakur himself is up against Shiv Sena’s Vijay Patil in Vasai. “I will groom a new generation of young party workers to take my place and in the next elections in 2024, they will take charge of my Vasai constituency, while I will concentrate on Palghar-Boisar belt and work for the development of the area,” said Thakur.

The BVA president said he could have easily announced his decision during the election campaigning, but chose not to do so. “My Opposition will get ideas that I am scared of him, and running away from the battle, but, I guarantee that I will win by at least 50,000 votes in Vasai and we will also retain the two seats in Boisar and Nallasopara,”he said.

Thakur had first won from Vasai on a Congress ticket in 1990 and later formed the BVA. Except in 2009, Thakur has won in all the remaining four elections from Vasai. Meanwhile, Sharma said he will give an appropriate reply to Thakur’s announcement on Wednesday.