At a time when Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray remains indisposed as he recovers from major spine recovery, party MP Sanjay Raut announced on Sunday that the Shiv Sena would contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 under the leadership of Yuva Sena chief and Maharashtra Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray.
With the announcement, Raut has reiterated the party’s plan to expand its pan-India footprint.
Raut said, “We have just come back from Goa and will visit Uttar Pradesh with Aaditya Thackeray soon. Akhilesh Yadav is going to form his government there. Under the leadership of Aaditya Thackeray, we will fight the Lok Sabha polls across the country and preparations are underway.”
Raut did not divulge further details but hinted that Uddhav would take the centre stage, deciding poll strategy and implementation because of limitations on his travel and addressing physical meetings since his spine surgery. However, Aaditya, who has established a good connection with the party’s new allies, the NCP and Congress, apart from the Shiv Sena cadre, will be on the move. Aaditya will not only step up his visits around Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra but will also travel to other states in the run-up to the 2024 general elections.
Raut’s statement followed Aaditya’s announcement that his party would contest all elections in the future, right from the panchayat level to general elections. “In times to come, we will contest all polls, be it Lok Sabha, Vidhan Sabha polls or gram panchayat polls. Shiv Sena is needed in all states,” he had said.
“Shiv Sena had not concentrated on Goa in the past due to its friendship with the BJP. But considering political developments in which the BJP back-stabbed the Sena, we have decided to contest all future elections in Goa,” said Aaditya, adding that Goa needed the Shiv Sena. Aaditya had campaigned for the party in Goa on February 11 and 12, in his father’s absence.
Further, the Shiv Sena is projecting Aaditya as its face in the upcoming elections to the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation. He has been attending not just party functions but also government functions in the absence of the CM who has been attending them virtually.
Aaditya has stepped up his presence not just in his Worli constituency but at the ward level, ahead of the BMC elections, in a serious bid to take on the BJP which had already announced ‘Mission 2022’ with a resolve to defeat the Shiv Sena. The BMC elections may take place by the end of March or by the middle of April.
These announcements by Raut and Aaditya are important, as the CM, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of his father and party supremo Bal Thackeray (January 23) had said the Shiv Sena would fight elections across the country to realise the latter’s dream of assuming power in Delhi. “One day, the Shiv Sena will be victorious in other states too and assume power in Delhi,” the CM had said.
He had also cited the example of the Sena’s erstwhile ally BJP, saying that the latter had merely two MPs in 1984 but was now leading the government at the Centre with 300-plus MPs.
