Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) mutually withdraw nominations

Mumbai: Ruling and opposition alliances in Maharashtra sort out differences on last day to withdraw nominations for legislative council seats.

Mumbai: On the last day to withdraw nominations, ruling and opposition alliances managed to sort out their differences for the elections to the four seats of the Maharashtra legislative council scheduled for June 26. Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), who were engaged in a war of words, mutually decided to withdraw one candidate each on Wednesday.

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Kishor Jain, from Shiv Sena (UBT), withdrew his nomination from the Konkan Graduates Constituency. Similarly, Congress candidate Dilip Patil took back his nomination from the Nashik Teachers Constituency. On the other hand, Shiv Sena nominee Sanjay More withdrew his nomination for Konkan Graduates Constituency for BJP candidate Niranjan Davkhare.

The development took place after the Congress leadership intervened. Till Tuesday the state Congress leadership was struggling to contact Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray to resolve the dispute. Admitting the same, Thackeray on Wednesday afternoon said, “There was a communication gap. We discussed with Congress leaders last night and it will be resolved soon.” After which the respective candidates of the allies withdrew from the fight.

The ruling party-led ‘Mahayuti’ are coordinating among themselves. Shiv Sena and BJP nominees have pulled back their nominations on some seats, but not all. Mahayuti candidates will contest against each other for the Mumbai Teachers and Nashik Teachers constituencies.

Following a discussion with the state revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, two BJP rebels, Rajendra Vikhe and Dhanraj Vispute withdrew their candidature from the Nashik Teachers constituency. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay More also took back his nomination from the Konkan Graduate constituency.

However, they failed to put up a united fight and BJP-supported Shivnath Darade will face the Ajit Pawar-led NCP candidate Shivaji Nalawade for the Mumbai Teachers constituency. Shiv Sena (UBT)’s JM Abhyankar and Shikshak Bharati candidate Subhash Bhamre are also contesting the poll for the seat.

In Nashik Teachers constituency, Shiv Sena candidate Kishor Darade is contesting against NCP’s Mahendra Bhavsar. Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena nominee Sandeep Gulve is also fighting from the seat.

For the Mumbai Graduates constituency, there will be a direct fight between Anil Parab from Shiv Sena (UBT) and Kiran Shelar of BJP. For the Konkan Graduates constituency sitting BJP legislator Niranjan Davkare will face Ramesh Keer from Congress.