After rout, Uddhav Sena eyes BMC poll sweep
In Mumbai, out of 20 assembly seats, Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena won 10 and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena bagged seven. Many Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders now say that their party should go solo in BMC election and win a majority of the seats. This will prove that Mumbai means Shiv Sena (UBT) and Thackeray, the leaders say. If Thackeray is able to retain the BMC, then it will revive his decimated party in the rest of the state. Many feel that Thackeray is capable of reviving the party while others say Shiv Sena under his leadership is politically finished.
‘Blaming EVMs won’t do, need to correct mistakes’
After the massive drubbing in the Maharashtra assembly polls, the state Congress unit called a meeting of its 102 candidates to analyse the poor show. Only 50 per cent of the candidates attended the meeting called by Maharashtra Congress president Nana Patole. At the meeting, many blamed EVMs for the abysmal performance. Some others however said that instead of putting the blame on EVMs, it’s better to do introspection and correct the mistakes that Congress does again and again. They said only blaming EVMs means shrugging off the responsibility.
NCP men bat for Ajit as compromise CM
As the MahaYuti won 230 seats out of 288 in the assembly, NCP (Ajit Pawar) workers feel that their leader is comfortably placed to be a deputy chief minister, a record of five times. But some in the party think beyond that. They say if the BJP does not want to make Eknath Shinde CM again and Shinde is opposing Devendra Fadnavis for the top job, then as a third option Ajit Pawar should be considered for the chief minister post. If this happens, there will be an exodus of NCP (SP) leaders to the Ajit party, they claim. As MahaYuti allies are yet to thrash out a power-sharing formula, speculations do the rounds in political circles.
Sudhir Suryawanshi
Our correspondent in Maharashtra
suryawanshi.sudhir@gmail.com