Congress vs Sena (UBT): Cracks in INDIA over Mumbai's North-West LS seat
Conflict arises between Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders over the nomination of Amol Kirtikar as the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha candidate.
- Mar 10, 2024,
- Updated Mar 10, 2024 12:52 PM IST
A war of words has begun between Congress and Sena (UBT) leaders after Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday announced that Amol Kirtikar would be his party's candidate from the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency. Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) are part of the INDIA alliance, which also has Sharad Pawar's NCP. They are yet to finalise seat-sharing talks for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. While seat-sharing is yet to be done, Uddhav Thackeray's announcement for the prestigious Mumbai seat irked Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam.
NIrupam said despite two dozen meetings of the alliance, the final decision on seat-sharing has not been taken yet. He said Mumbai's North-West seat is also among the 8-9 seats which are pending. "Then isn't announcing the candidate from Shiv Sena a violation of alliance dharma? Or is such an act being done deliberately to humiliate Congress? The top leadership of Congress should intervene."
The Congress leader said that Sena's candidate Amol Kirtikar is a "scammer of Khichdi scam" and "has taken bribe in check from the Khichdi supplier".
"What is Khichdi Scam? During the Covid era, there was a commendable program of providing free food to forced migrant laborers by #BMC. Shiv Sena's proposed candidate has taken commission from the scheme of feeding the poor. ED Investigating the entire matter," he said.
The Sena (UBT) said that it had won the North-west seat in the 2019 elections and therefore had every right to announce its candidates. The Uddhav faction leader said that if Nirupam wants to contest from there, he should request his central leadership.
In 2019, Shiv Sena's Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar defeated Sanjay Nirupam by over 2.5 lakh votes. Kirtikar had got 570,063 votes (60.55%), while Nirupam had to settle with 3,09,735 (32.90).
Gajanan Kirtikar is the father of Amol, who has been fielded by Sena (UBT). Gajanan is currently with the Shinde faction.
A war of words has begun between Congress and Sena (UBT) leaders after Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday announced that Amol Kirtikar would be his party's candidate from the Mumbai North-West Lok Sabha constituency. Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT) are part of the INDIA alliance, which also has Sharad Pawar's NCP. They are yet to finalise seat-sharing talks for 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. While seat-sharing is yet to be done, Uddhav Thackeray's announcement for the prestigious Mumbai seat irked Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam.
NIrupam said despite two dozen meetings of the alliance, the final decision on seat-sharing has not been taken yet. He said Mumbai's North-West seat is also among the 8-9 seats which are pending. "Then isn't announcing the candidate from Shiv Sena a violation of alliance dharma? Or is such an act being done deliberately to humiliate Congress? The top leadership of Congress should intervene."
The Congress leader said that Sena's candidate Amol Kirtikar is a "scammer of Khichdi scam" and "has taken bribe in check from the Khichdi supplier".
"What is Khichdi Scam? During the Covid era, there was a commendable program of providing free food to forced migrant laborers by #BMC. Shiv Sena's proposed candidate has taken commission from the scheme of feeding the poor. ED Investigating the entire matter," he said.
The Sena (UBT) said that it had won the North-west seat in the 2019 elections and therefore had every right to announce its candidates. The Uddhav faction leader said that if Nirupam wants to contest from there, he should request his central leadership.
In 2019, Shiv Sena's Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar defeated Sanjay Nirupam by over 2.5 lakh votes. Kirtikar had got 570,063 votes (60.55%), while Nirupam had to settle with 3,09,735 (32.90).
Gajanan Kirtikar is the father of Amol, who has been fielded by Sena (UBT). Gajanan is currently with the Shinde faction.