In a major boost to the Thackeray faction, the Congress party on Monday announced its support in the Andheri East assembly by-election slated for November 3. A delegation comprising state unit chief Nana Patole and Mumbai unit chief Bhai Jagtap met Uddhav Thackeray and assured the party's support to its candidate Rutuja Latke. Earlier, the Mumbai Congress leaders including Milind Deora, Bhai Jagtap, Ravi Raja had objected to Patole’s announcement saying that the party's support will impact its prospects in the BMC elections.
Patole after the meeting said that his party would support Rutuja Latke, the deceased MLA's wife who has been fielded by the Shiv Sena.
The by-poll was necessitated following the death of Shiv Sena legislator Ramesh Latke in May. BJP is expected to field former BMC corporator Murji Patel who had contested as an independent against Latke but lost the elections held in 2019.
A former Congress minister told the Free Press Journal, ‘’ The Maha Vikas Aghadi is not dead but still functional. Three parties Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena together pose a serious challenge to BJP as it will not only avoid division in votes but lure the voters who are not happy with the BJP led government at the Centre and the manner in which the party has toppled the MVA government in Maharashtra.’’
Patole said that MVA was formed after the results of the 2019 assembly elections to keep the BJP out of power for the benefit of Maharashtra. The MVA government was in the state for two-and-a-half years and took many welfare decisions like farmer loan waiver. The government did the best work in the country during the great crisis like Covid-19.
‘’However, the ruling BJP at the Centre misused the central probe agencies like ED and CBI and toppled the MVA government by engineering defection of Shiv Sena MLAs. BJP's efforts to break the MVA were not successful, so they broke the Shiv Sena party. In this battle against the BJP, the Congress party is firmly standing with the Shiv Sena as the MVA partner and it will not field its candidate in the Andheri East Assembly by-election,’’ said Patole. He added that the party leaders and workers will work with full strength to elect the Shiv Sena candidate.
