Uddhav Thackeray: Two Mumbai Seats Allocated to Allies, Prepared to Contest If They Don't

Mumbai: All parties have made preparations in Mumbai ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. In the Maha Yuti, the BJP has announced three candidates, while the Shiv Sena UBT group has announced four candidates in the Maha Vikas Aghadi. "We have given the remaining two seats to the allies. If they (Congress/NCP) do not contest, we will announce the candidate", Uddhav Thackeray has said. 

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"We have announced our candidature for four seats in Mumbai. In the other two seats, we have asked our allies if they will contest. If they don't contest, we will announce our candidature. We have candidates. We have fielded candidates on the four seats that were decided in the negotiations. Two seats have been asked by allies to field their own candidates. These include North Mumbai and North Central Mumbai. Our workers will campaign diligently as if the seat belongs to the Shiv Sena," he said. 

Uddhav Thackeray has fielded Arvind Sawant from South Mumbai, Sanjay Dina Patil from North East Mumbai, Amol Kirtikar from North West and Anil Desai from South Central Mumbai. Arvind Sawant is the sitting MP from South Mumbai who stayed with Thackeray despite the split in the party. In South Central Mumbai, Rahul Shewale, who was an MP, has gone with Eknath Shinde. Gajanan Kirtikar was the sitting MP from North West, but he is with Eknath Shinde. Therefore, Uddhav Thackeray decided to field Amol Kirtikar from this seat. He also announced the candidature of Sanjay Dina Patil from the North East Mumbai seat. There is sitting MP Manoj Kotak and the BJP has fielded Mihir Kotecha instead of Kotak.

Meanwhile, the Thackeray group has given two of the six seats in Mumbai to allies. But the Congress is keen on the South Central Mumbai seat. Sharad Pawar's camp workers have been insisting that the seat be given to them as the NCP has a strong presence in the North East Mumbai constituency. However, Thackeray's announcement of candidates for both these seats has left the allies in a quandary. The BJP has fielded Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North this time. Poonam Mahajan is a BJP MP from North Central Mumbai. However, no candidate has been announced for the seat so far.