Adjust, sacrifice: Ruling alliance members told

he ruling alliance of over eight parties in their joint rally at NSCI dome in Worli, resolved to win all the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra.The leaders also criticised the INDIA alliance saying they have come together to save their own parties and leadership.

Mumbai: Amid apprehensions expressed by the second rung leaders over the secondary treatment at the local level and in the assembly polls because of the entry of the third partner in the ruling alliance, the top leadership of the three ruling parties appealed their rank and file to adjust and sacrifice.

Mumbai, India - Sept. 1, 2023: Dy CM Ajit Pawar, CM Eknath Shinde, Dy CM Devendra Fadnavis, during "Mahayuti" alliance meeting at NSCI, Worli, in Mumbai, India, on Friday, September 1, 2023. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The ruling alliance of over eight parties in their joint rally at NSCI dome in Worli, resolved to win all the 48 Lok Sabha seats from Maharashtra.

The ruling alliance leaders also criticised the INDIA alliance saying they have come together to save their own parties and leadership.

The ruling alliance had organised parallel meetings and a day-long review sessions as the opposition’s INDIA alliance in Mumbai.

However, the day-long review session was reduced to a four-hour rally as chief minister Eknath Shinde and his two deputies Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar had to receive Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar in Mumbai. The scheduled region-wise review meetings with the MPs, MLAs and district office-bearers were dropped due to the change in the schedule.

Gulabrao Patil, the Shiv Sena–Shinde faction leader and water resources minister, who spoke first in the rally, expressed his apprehension that they may have to face the trouble in their constituencies in Assembly polls.

“We are committed to working together in Lok Sabha polls to make Narendra Modi the prime minister once again, but we should not face any trouble due to the fighting within the alliance during the elections,” said Patil.

“This has happened in the past. Shiv Sena and the NCP workers have been fighting the polls against each other for all these years. It should not happen in the Assembly polls,” added Patil.

This has been the general reaction among the workers and local leaders of three ruling parties gathered from across the state. “Yes, we are little worried about our political space after the entry of our third partner, the Ajit Pawar faction,” said a former Shiv Sena minister who is now with Shinde faction.

Responding to the apprehension expressed by Patil, Ajit said that there was a need to bury the differences between them and work together to win all the Lok Sabha seats.

“We can speak about the old fights (between ruling allies) at the village and state level in various elections, but it is time to go ahead by burying the old disagreements/fights,” said Ajit.

“We have been taking decisions amicably and taking each other into confidence at the state level. The message needs to be sent at village and district level among people and party workers by organising more such rallies,” added Ajit.