Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Monday decided to give away three seats in Raigad district – Alibaug, Pen and Panvel – to Peasants and Workers party (PWP). Sources believe that the decision has come after the party president Uddhav Thackeray realised that PWP may cause a bigger harm to his party in the long run if it is not accommodated in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
Shiv Sena (UBT) and PWP both were struggling to arrive at a consensus over the crucial seats in Raigad, Solapur and Nanded districts. PWP had claimed six assembly seats of which four are from Raigad district (Alibaug, Pen, Panvel and Uran) and one each from Solapur (Sangola) and Nanded (Loha Kandhar) districts.
PWP has a strong hold over four seats of Raigad district and Sangola seat of Solapur. PWP had demanded six seats while in talks with the MVA and subsequently declared candidates for all of them on October 22. Next day, Shiv Sena (UBT) also went ahead and declared candidates for those seats.
The controversy arose from attempts by top MVA management to settle scores with smaller allies. Experts believe that Thackeray felt that PWP didn’t support their candidate, Anant Geete, enough during the Lok Sabha elections, leading to his defeat. This led to Thackeray withdrawing support from PWP General Secretary Jayant Patil during the legislative council elections.
Thackeray’s decision to leave the crucial seats for PWP seems to be politically driven one, purely because of PWP’s moves during the Lok Sabha elections.
The PWP has fielded Chitralekha Patil in Alibaug, Atul Mhatre in Pen and Balaram Patil in Panvel. Chitralekha had recently donated cycles to 22000 girls so that they could reach their schools and colleges comfortably. Her political debut marks the Patil family’s fourth generation’s involvement in the politics of Alibaug.
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