Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Ramdas Athawale on Tuesday said that his party can contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the South Mumbai seat if the Mahayuti allies are unable to reach a consensus on fielding someone on the seat.
Athawale in an interview with the Free Press Journal gave a witty response to the question on why the BJP-led Mahayuti Alliance has decided its desired candidate for the high profile seat.
"All the Mahayuti allies should learn from me. I took the decision of not contesting even one seat for the sake of PM Narendra Modi ji. It took me just one day. The Mahayuti allies should think this way too and decide it," said Athawale.
"If they are confused to decide among them, they should better let us contest from the seat," he added.
Athawale's remarks came after he was recently denied by the BJP of contesting from the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat. He had earlier expressed his desire to contest the Shirdi Lok Sabha seat, but due to alliance constraints, it didn't materialise.
Despite this setback, his party workers urged him to remain within the ruling NDA fold and advocate for a cabinet position at the national level.
Addressing a press conference in Nagpur earlier this month, Athawale, the prominent Dalit face from Maharashtra and a Rajya Sabha member, revealed his aspiration to transition to the Lok Sabha and had pursued the Shirdi seat for this purpose. However, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, representing the Shiv Sena, had already promised the Shirdi seat to the party's incumbent MP, Sadashiv Lokhande. Hence, Athawale backed out and decided to support the BJP with their decision.
In Mumbai specifically, the Mumbai South constituency has been a bone of contention among the Mahayuti allies, with BJP keen to field Maharashtra speaker Rahul Narwekar from the seat. However, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena wants to field their candidate as the seat was won by the undivided Shiv Sena in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi on the other hand has fielded its strongman and sitting MP Arvind Sawant from the seat, with high hopes of bagging a third win from the crucial seat. As the elections are just around the corner, both the alliances have put all their weight to emerge victorious in the mega city.
All six constituencies of Mumbai are set to go for polls on May 20 in the third phase of elections in Maharashtra. The results of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 consisting of 545 seats nationwide will be declared on June 4.
