Dhangekar says Shinde should lead again; BJP's Ban blames Shiv Sena for Mahayuti setback in MLC polls

Ravindra Dhangekar of the Shinde faction has demanded that Eknath Shinde be given leadership once again. He made the remark amid the tussle within the Mahayuti after the Legislative Council election results.

Dhangekar said Shiv Sena had not supported the Mahayuti covertly in this election but had backed it openly. He asked whether people were falling short in seeking friendship and coordination. He also said all this was just talk, and that the talk was not about Ban. According to Dhangekar, Jayant Patil had phoned him to congratulate him. He said everyone was a friend.

Dhangekar said this was a victory for democracy. In his words, in a democracy the result is the people's verdict, and the people's verdict has to be accepted. He said that in a democracy votes are cast on the government's work. Graduates and teachers, he said, deal with the government in much the same way. Dhangekar said teachers had voted against the government, which meant they were angry. He also recalled that the BJP had come to power when Eknath Shinde was Chief Minister. For this reason, he said, Shinde should get another chance.

The BJP, meanwhile, has blamed Shiv Sena for the setback to the Mahayuti. The BJP alleges that the Mahayuti suffered because an ally's support was lost, and that Shiv Sena's stand upset the Mahayuti's arithmetic. The BJP has questioned Shiv Sena over backing someone else in Pune and campaigning against the Nationalist Congress Party in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. BJP spokesperson Navnath Ban wrote a post on social media about this.

In the post, Ban said: "In the elections to the teachers' and graduates' constituencies, ally Shiv Sena did not extend the expected cooperation in Pune and Nagpur. By backing Sachin Sanap at the last minute in Pune, Shiv Sena dealt a blow to the unity of the Mahayuti. The votes he got were votes the BJP did not get in the graduates' election. In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Abdul Sattar campaigned directly against the Nationalist Congress Party. That too caused damage. Had Shiv Sena upheld Mahayuti dharma and stood with the BJP and the Nationalist Congress Party, the Mahayuti would have won all five seats. But out of greed for one seat in Pune, Shiv Sena put its allies in difficulty and lost the chance of victory on three seats. An approach that harms allies for the sake of one seat is not in the interest of the Mahayuti."