Congress Leader Says Party Will Fight Mumbai Civic Polls Alone, Sena Reacts

After Bihar, the INDIA bloc could be heading for another rift in Maharashtra, thanks to the Congress refusal to go along with the idea of playing on the same side with MNS chief Raj Thackeray.

Senior Congress leader and former Mumbai president Bhai Jagtap said today that the Congress will not ally with Raj Thackeray in the coming civic polls. Nor will it contest the elections in alliance with Uddhav Thackeray and instead, contest independently.

Jagtap said the matter was discussed at a recent meeting of a newly formed committee with Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala. There has been no formal announcement though.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Anand Dubey has already hit back at Bhai Jagtap.

"The decision on alliance will be taken by senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge and Sena's Uddhav Thackeray," he said.  

"Do not challenge us. We are Shiv Sena and in the last election we contested alone and defeated the BJP. We respect our alliance partners but are also ready to contest the elections alone," he added.

The Congress and Uddhav Thackeray's party have been allies since 2019 -- an alliance crafted by Nationalist Congress chief Sharad Pawar, which has stood the test of time and many ups and downs despite their opposing ideologies. 

But with Uddhav Thackeray getting close again with his estranged cousin, introducing Raj Thackeray into the mix could be a challenging prospect. 

The Thackeray cousins are reportedly keen on coming to an understanding  before the election to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation - said to the richest civic body in Asia.

There is no word on how the other ally in the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi. Sharad Pawar, would respond. 

In Bihar, the pressure of the coming assembly election has driven apart the allies in the Grand Alliance. While there has been no similar strong statement from the Congress or Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal, the two have been unable to come to an understanding on seat sharing.

The parties have fielded candidates unilaterally, setting up friendly contests on a bunch of seats that could benefit the BJP.

The other repercussion is that Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, ignored for much of the negotiations, has announced that it would not contest the election in Bihar. Instead, it said, it would re-evaluate the alliance in Jharkhand. All three parties are part of the government in Raipur.