Mumbai: Aiming for undivided Marathi Manoos votes, BJP city president Ashish Shelar on Saturday sought his alliance Mahayuti’s whole-hearted support for Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray’s son Amit Thackeray in Mahim.
Shelar said at a meeting in Bandra, “Raj Thackeray has retained his stance over Hindutva. He supports us and cherishes our relationships, and has announced his son Amit’s candidacy in Mahim. He is from our clan, and Mahayuti must support him.”
In the same breath, Shelar said he is not against Sada Sarvankar (who has been nominated by the Shinde faction from in the constituency). “But I sincerely feel that as Mahayuti, everyone needs to take a positive political stance. This will convey a positive message to the people of Maharashtra,” said Shelar.
Shelar’s appeal came after Amit Thackeray’s statement on Friday that Shiv Sena should not have fielded a candidate in the constituency, given that his father had extended unconditional support to the alliance during the Lok Sabha polls.
Sarvankar, however, is a sitting MLA from Mahim and stayed with Shinde when the latter rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray. He defected from the Sena to Congress in 2009 but returned in 2012, later winning two terms as an MLA for the party.
Meanwhile, this is Amit Thackeray’s political debut. Incidentally, Uddhav has fielded Mahesh Sawant from Mahim against Amit, whose father Raj had supported Aaditya Thackeray in his 2019 debut by not nominating an opposing candidate. If Mahayuti decides to support Amit, then Sarvankar would need to withdraw his nomination.
Shiv Sena leader Uday Samant said there’s a bigger picture to analyse. “Sarvankar stood by the party during tough times, and it wouldn’t be right to disregard him,” he added.
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Sarvankar contested the 2009 assembly elections on a Congress ticket but lost to MNS’ Nitin Sardesai. He, however, won two consecutive terms in 2014 and 2019. He was recently appointed as the chairman of the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust. Two years ago, during the Ganeshotsav festival, he was involved in a public altercation between the Thackeray and Shinde factions, where he fired a shot in the air, eventually getting a clean chit in the matter.