Shiv Sena (UBT) to name LS candidates on Tuesday

Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said on Monday the party will announce the names of its Lok Sabha candidates for Maharashtra on March 26 after a final round of discussions with other Maha Vikas Aghadi allies.

He said that the party would declare its first list of around 14-15 LS nominees on Tuesday, but did not specify the constituencies it would contest, and whether smaller allies would be accommodated.

This will be the second MVA ally’s list after the Congress named 12 candidates last week, the SS (UBT) will announce its candidates Tuesday and the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) is likely to follow suit.

However, the SS (UBT) has unofficially announced its prospective candidates for certain seats, irking the other allies who pointed out that the seat-sharing talks are still in progress.

Referring to the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA)’s unilateral move to snap ties with MVA, Raut said that the opposition had offered Prakash Ambedkar four seats from the list he had submitted, but it was not acceptable to him.

Ambedkar also suo motu announced that he would file his nomination papers this week from the Akola Lok Sabha seat though keeping the door ajar for the MVA to take its final decision.

On March 15, the SS (UBT) had made a ‘take it, or leave it’ type of offer for the four seats which was spurned by Ambedkar, who later (March 19) declared open, unconditional support to seven Congress candidates in the state. The Congress has not yet reacted to the olive branch.

Against the backdrop, Raut said that while the alliance can win even without the VBA, said that the MVA is fervently hoping that Ambedkar will accept the offer and fight along with SS (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party.