Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut, who is in Pune Saturday, told The Indian Express, "The Kasba experiment has a lesson for the MVA. If we remain firmly united, then the outcome will be like the Kasba bypoll. If we become even slightly negligent, then we will get a Chinchwad-like result." (File) After a resounding success in the Kasba Assembly bypoll, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) seems to have found a “winning formula” to take on the BJP which had bagged the highest number of seats in the 2019 election and is putting up a tough fight in every other election against the MVA. Leaders of the MVA believe that the Kasba experiment has given them a new confidence to fight the upcoming elections, especially the Parliamentary and Assembly elections scheduled next year.
Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Sanjay Raut, who is in Pune Saturday, told The Indian Express, “The Kasba experiment has a lesson for the MVA. If we remain firmly united, then the outcome will be like the Kasba bypoll. If we become even slightly negligent, then we will get a Chinchwad-like result.”
Raut said the MVA had a good chance in the Chinchwad seat. “After the death of Laxman Jagtap, the BJP does not have a leader like his stature. And, therefore, the MVA was in a better position to win the seat. If we had managed to get a one-to-one fight, we would have won. We should have got one candidate to withdraw from the race. If this would have happened, the MVA candidate would have won by a big margin,” he said.
Raut said the way the MVA fought in the Kasba seat, it could not do so in the Chinchwad seat. “In Kasba, the MVA put up an aggressive fight. We were all united and wanted to win desperately. In Chinchwad, we could not replicate the experiment. We failed to get the rebel candidate (Rahul Kalate) to withdraw from the race,” he said.
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had sent Sachin Aher, his emissary, to coax Kalate to withdraw from the race before the last date of withdrawal of nomination. However, Kalate refused to heed his plea. Asked if deputing Aaditya Thackeray instead of Aher would have helped, Raut said, “I can’t comment on that. But we all, including the NCP, made efforts to convince Kalate but he had his own reasons to contest the election.”
Asked if Kalate is still with Shiv Sena (UBT), Raut said, “I myself don’t know.”
MVA constituent Congress too said the Kasba experiment will be implemented in every election in the state. “We will contest all future elections, including the Parliamentary elections, unitedly. Not just Kasba, earlier we also unitedly fought the Amravati and Nagpur council elections and won everywhere. The MVA is confident about winning at least 42 Lok Sabha seats whenever the elections are held,” state Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said.
Asked if the one-to-one formula will also be applicable for the civic elections, Londhe said, “For the upcoming elections, we will plan to put up one MVA candidate everywhere. We will discuss the plan in the upcoming meeting of MVA leaders.”
State NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said, “The recent positive results in favour of the MVA has infused a new energy in every karyakarta of the MVA. On the other hand, the body language of the BJP leaders and workers reflects negativity and a state of depression. The BJP has every reason to worry. The results showed that if the MVA fights elections aggressively, there is no reason why we can’t win all the seats.”
Tapase said the NCP has already launched the experiment of firming up their alliance with Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena in Kalyan and Thane areas. “In these regions, we all are working together. We have some 12 assembly seats and whenever elections are held, we are confident of winning all of them,” Tapase said.