Even though seat-sharing talks between the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners remain inconclusive, Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday announced that Amol Kirtikar would be his party’s candidate from the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency.
Notably, Amol’s father and sitting MP from the seat Gajanan Kirtikar is affiliated to the rival Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
Thackeray announced Amol’s candidature while addressing party workers in the constituency, though the talks among MVA partners (Sena (UBT), NCP (SP) and Congress) are still going on.
In his speech, Thackeray ridiculed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for the blunder in the reconstruction of Gokhale Bridge, and also took potshots at commissioner Iqbal Chahal over alleged corruption in the BMC which does not have an elected body for nearly two years.
The BMC has become the butt of people’s jokes after it was found that the reconstructed Gokhale Bridge over the railway tracks at Andheri station did not align with the connecting Barfiwala flyover.
Thackeray dared the ruling BJP to hold elections to the assembly and municipal corporations along with the Lok Sabha.
Besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates also included Kripashankar Singh, he noted, claiming that the saffron party had once accused Singh (who was then with the Congress) of money laundering and possession of disproportionate assets.
In 2019, the BJP fielded a former Congress worker who went on to defeat (then Congress candidate) Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guna, but now this worker has been dumped and Scindia has been given the BJP ticket, Thackeray said.
Source Agencies
