After poll debacle, UBT leader fires ‘suit and tie’ barb at Cong
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 28
Success has many fathers, failure has none. Now that the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance has bitten dust in Maharashtra elections, knives are out among partners to apportion the blame.
On Thursday Ambadas Danve, a senior leader of the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray camp, openly attributed the MVA debacle to Congress party’s overconfidence.
Danve did not stop at that. He said Congress leaders were ready with “suit and tie” even before the results were out.
“The Congress became overconfident after Lok Sabha elections where it won 13 seats in Maharashtra, the highest among MVA partners. It became overconfident just like it did in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir,” Danve said adding that results would have been different had the MVA projected Uddhav Thackeray as chief ministerial candidate. Danve also said that Congress Party’s “unreasonable bargaining approach during seat sharing cost the alliance heavily.”
The Congress contested 103 seats and won 16, Shiv Sena UBT contested 89 and won 20 and NCP (SP) fought on 87 and won 10. Danve, who is leader of opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council, said Sena UBT will prepare on all 288 seats alone for the future.
Many Sena UBT leaders are privately learnt to have urged Uddhav to contest the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections alone and not as part of MVA.
The Tribune has also learnt that MVA partners were working to negotiate with independents ahead of the Maharashtra election results on November 23 and were upbeat about the results.
The Congress for its part said Uddhav Thackeray was made CM of Maharashtra with full concurrence and blessings of top party leadership including Sonia Gandhi whom he came a met in 2019 before switching camps and ending his alliance with the BJP.
"At that time what was the Congress? Overconfident or generous?" a senior Maharashtra Congressman said as MVA already appeared to be imploding.
Cracks in mva?
Ambadas Danve, a senior leader of the Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray camp, said: “Congress became overconfident after Lok Sabha elections. It became overconfident just like it did in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir”.
