Lok Sabha Election 2024: In light of Shiv Sena staking claim to Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency, irked senior Congress leader Milind Deora said on Sunday that his party can announce candidates for seats too if such statements by an alliance partner do not stop. While saying that the upcoming Lok Sabha elections would not be easy for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance, he asked everybody to stop making any claims or counter-claims, as per news agency PTI.
The MVA includes the NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), the Congress, and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
Shiv Sena (UBT) made the claim to the Mumbai South seat, which its undivided outfit had won in the 2019 elections, reported PTI.
Milind Deora, son of late Congress veteran Murli Deora, issued a video statement on Sunday in which he spoke of how Deoras have been associated with the Mumbai South constituency for the last 50 years as MPs or otherwise.
"My family is connected with voters here based on the work done by us and this relationship has developed over the years," said Deora, who has recently been appointed as the joint treasurer of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), as quoted by PTI.
Deora, who was a former Union minister, said that he had received messages and phone calls from Congress workers and supporters who were concerned about their MVA ally staking claim to the Mumbai South constituency.
Hinting at MP Arvind Sawant, who was elected when the undivided Shiv Sena was an ally of the BJP, Deora said, "We were not elected in any wave." Without taking the name of Shiv Sena, he said that he did not wish to create any unwanted controversy, but "an alliance partner" has been making one-sided claims over the seat-sharing.
"Last week, their spokesperson asked the Congress to start from zero. If this wasn't enough, a fresh claim over the Mumbai South seat was made at a rally of the ally yesterday in Girgaum," Deora said, according to PTI.
"If a party doesn't want to wait till the formal talks on seat sharing conclude, the Congress will stake the claim and announce candiates. I hope this message reaches important people in Mumbai and Delhi. I appeal to you to be patient," he further added.
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