MUMBAI: The meeting between Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and BJP President Amit Shah, though said to be positive, it is unlikely to have any effect on the legislative council elections scheduled for this month.
Elections of four seats of the Maharashtra legislative council – from the teachers’ and the graduates’ constituencies - are scheduled to take place on June 25 with the results slated on June 28. The last day of filing nominations is today (June 7) while last date for withdrawing nominations is June 11.
The BJP and the Shiv Sena are likely to fight with each other on at least two of these four seats. The BJP has fielded its candidate in the Mumbai Graduates’ constituency, which the Shiv Sena had been contesting for over 25 years ever since it got into an alliance with the BJP. On the other side the Shiv Sena has fielded its candidate in the Konkan Graduates’ constituency, the seat which traditionally belonged to the BJP.
While the BJP sources have said after the Shah-Thackeray meet that at least 2-3 more rounds of meeting would be done before reaching a common ground, the Shiv Sena sources have said that the party’s official stand is likely to be made clear during Uddhav Thackeray’s public meeting at Palghar in the evening.
“Our party has already decided in its national conclave to contest all elections independently and I don’t think there is any reason to change the stand,” Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Nirupam told the media representatives today.
Thackeray is scheduled to meet prominent party leaders in Palghar at 3 pm and then proceed to Shrinivas Vanga’s residence at Talasari before addressing a public meeting in the evening.