Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
The party’s state president, Ravindra Chavan, recently announced he was the candidate of Mahayuti. “The Pune seat should have gone to our party but BJP announced its candidate without any consultation within the alliance.
In the meeting held by our party chief Shinde, all members took a stand that we should work to grow our party and so we should support Sanap’s candidature,” a senior Shiv Sena member said. Cabinet minister Shambhuraj Desai said, “We discussed about growing the party’s base in the state in the meeting. BJP has fielded Kaustubh Gawade as the party’s official candidate for the Pune seat of the teachers’ constituency. Most of them firmly took a stand that instead of supporting the BJP candidate, the party should work for the rebel candidate, Sachin Sanap. The latter worked as the OSD (officer on special duty) of cabinet minister Uday Samant from Sena. We are in Mahayuti and will continue to work in coordination with our allies. At the same time, it is our right to grow our own party. Shinde-led Sena’s Sanap filed his nomination for the teachers’ constituency. Another party member, Mangesh Chivate, filed his nomination for the graduate constituency. Chivate, who was an OSD of Shinde, withdrew his nomination on the final day of withdrawal, but Sanap remained in the fray as an Independent candidate.
Pune: The rift between Mahayuti partners seems to be growing over the MLC polls for the Pune seat of the teachers’ constituency though chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday scotched speculation that Shiv Sena would support the rebel candidate contesting against the BJP ’s nominee. Deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde on Tuesday held a closed-door meeting with some Sena MPs, MLAs and other party functionaries in Mumbai.