Achi news desk-
Reaffirming the saying that the political sands are constantly shifting, Uddhav Thackeray, once staunchly anti-Congress, on Friday pledged to vote for the grand old party, the first of his life. He made the statement, which will give more ammunition to his opponents, when Varsha Gaikwad, the Congress candidate for the North Central seat in Mumbai, met him at his residence to seek his blessings.
The Thackeray clan, especially Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, have bitterly fought the Congress several times in the past. However, the country’s political landscape underwent a seismic shift when Udhav joined hands with the Congress and the undivided NCP, forming the tripartite Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition.
Uddhav Thackeray’s support for Priyanka Gaikwad in North Central Mumbai
Udhav’s residence, ‘Matoshree’, is situated in East Bandra, which falls in the North Central constituency of Mumbai. While the Thackeray family, including Aditya Thackeray, passionately appealed to voters to elect a ‘burning torch’, the former prime minister decided to hold the ‘hand’ (party symbol) of the Congress in the Gaikwad constituency.
Congratulating the Municipal Congress chief for securing the poll ticket, Udhav extended his “full cooperation” to her. When asked about voting for a Congress candidate for the first time ever, he said, “It is true that I will vote for ‘Yad’, but it held a ‘burning torch’. After winning the elections, we will blow up ‘Totri’ (Sharad Pawar’s party symbol) together.”
Election strategy in Mumbai and confidence in winning all six seats
When asked if Gaikwad was disappointed when she was dropped from North Central Mumbai as she wanted to contest from South Central Mumbai, Uddhav claimed, “She is not disappointed. Being the Mumbai Congress chief, she can contest elections anywhere in the city. We will send her to Parliament, so she can stop changing the constitution and the dictatorship in the country.” Talking about the Congress’s ‘dissatisfaction’ over the Senegalese seat, he tweeted ‘Sengeli aha changeli’ (everything is fine in Senegalese).
Exuding confidence that her party will win all the six seats in Mumbai, Gaikwad said, “I have been in this constituency for the last 10 months. I am well aware of that. I will campaign strongly in Mumbai so that the Congress can win all the six seats. The MVA will win the seats as it did in -2004”.
