Congress relents, backs Shiv Sena UBT for Maharashtra MLC elections

Mumbai: After much hemming and hawing, Congress backed down from its threat of fielding its own candidate for the Maharashtra Legislative Council posts that could have put the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance in peril. Maharashtra Congress on Thursday extended support to Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Sena candidate Ambadas Danve.

On Thursday, a UBT Sena delegation led by senior UBT leaders Anil Parab, Anil Desai and others met state Congress president Harshwardhan Sapkal and other Congress leaders at Gandhi Bhavan along with Danve where they 'requested' Congress not to put up a candidate as it could split the Opposition votes.


Emerging out of the meeting, Sakpal said that to keep Opposition unity and to keep BJP at bay, Congress has decided to back the UBT Sena nominee. Congress leaders said UBT president Uddhav Thackeray too had called Sapkal to ask him to support Danve following which Congress decided not to contest the polls.

Sources said Congress wanted an assurance that the party would be able to nominate its own candidates in 2028 when Rajya Sabha and MLC seats would fall vacant.