Aaditya Thackeray to launch statewide tour ahead of Assembly polls

Mumbai, July 15 (IANS) Shiv Sena UBT, which is a part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi, has launched preparations for the upcoming Assembly election in Maharashtra. 

Apart from the region wise meetings by the party Chief Uddhav Thackeray and tours by the respective regional incharge, Shiv Sena leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray will also launch a state wide tour from Tuesday in a bid to increase party’s presence as a part of ‘Mission Assembly’.

He will visit Karjat and Uran constituencies which are the part of Maval Lok Sabha constituency which the party lost to Eknath Shinde led Shiv Sena. 

Although Shiv Sena united had won Karjat seat the sitting MLA Mahendra Thorve had joined hands with Shinde after his rebellion in June 2022. 

In the case of Uran, the party had lost to an independent in the 2019 assembly election. Aaditya’s proposed visit is to charge up the local level Shiv Sainiks asking them to step up outreach with voters and regain hold over these seats.

Sources said that Aaditya will interact with the office bearers at Karjat at 2.30 pm and later he will hold a similar interactive session at Uran. 

Thereafter, Aaditya will cover constituencies from Konkan and other parts of Maharashtra.

Aaditya’s move to start from Raigad district is crucial as the party has no representation in the Konkan region in the Lok Sabha. 

Shiv Sena UBT has lost Raigad to NCP,  Maval, Thane and Kalyan to Shiv Sena, Palghar and Ratnagiri Sindhudurg to BJP. Shiv Sena united has been a dominant player in the Konkan region but it will now have to start anew to capture its old bastion during the upcoming assembly election.

Meanwhile, in the wake of its performance in the Lok Sabha elections by winning 31 seats, the Maha Vikas Aghadi partners comprising Shiv Sena UBT, Congress and NCP SP along with other smaller parties will soon hold a meeting of key office bearers in Mumbai to chalk out a joint strategy for the repeat of its performance in the assembly election. 

The office bearers will decide the issues to be jointly taken up during the assembly election especially when the MahaYuti government is banking on a slew of freebies and sops announced in the budget for 2024-25 to lure the voters.

A senior MVA functionary said that the three parties will soon launch seat sharing talks so that the parties can use the time for campaigning and increase voters’ outreach.

(Sanjay Jog can be contacted at [email protected])