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Maharashtra Congress Working President Arif Naseem Khan on Friday expressed displeasure over Shiv Sena (UBT) announcing its candidates for traditional seats of Congress.
"It's saddening when our coalition partner announces candidates on the seats that are traditional seats of Congress but we will avoid such thing to save the nation which is a bigger cause. We will have a friendly fight on those seats. We have already conveyed the view of Maharashtra Congress workers and leaders to the central leadership about the friendly fight on 5-6 seats," said Arif Naseem Khan. Earlier on March 27, the Shiv Sena (UBT) released its first list of 17 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, nominating former Union ministers Anant Geete and Arvind Sawant from Raigad and South Mumbai constituencies respectively. Party leader Sanjay Raut took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to share the list of the 17 candidates, namely for Raigad, Ratnagiri, Thane, Parbhani, Buldhana, Yavatmal, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Shirdi, South Mumbai, North West Mumbai, North East Mumbai, Sangli, Hingoli, Dharshiv, Nasik and Maval seats. Sitting MP Arvind Sawant has been fielded from the South Mumbai seat, with Amol Kirtikar being fielded from the Mumbai North West constituency, a seat once represented by his father, Gajanan Kirtikar. Kirtikar's nomination comes even as the ED on Wednesday issued a summons to him in connection with his alleged involvement in the Khichdi scam. The party has fielded Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal, Narendra Khedekar from Buldhana, Sanjog Waghere from Maval, Chandrahar Patil from Sangali, Nagesh Patil from Hingoli, Chandrakant Khere from Sambhajinagar and Omraj Nimbalkar from Dharshiv. Veteran party leader Anant Geete will contest the Raigadh seat and Vinayak Raut will contest from Ratnagiri. Rajan Vichare is the candidate of the party from Thane, while Sanjay Jadhav is all set to fight Parbhani seat. The UBT Sena is fighting the Maharashtra polls in alliance with the Congress, the NCP (Sharad Pawar) and the Congress. Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20. The state, with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, is the second-largest contributor to the lower house of Parliament after Uttar Pradesh. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats. The undivided NCP, part of the opposition alliance, contested 19 seats and won four. Following the split in the Shiva Sena 2022, the Eknath Shinde faction aligned with the BJP. (ANI)
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