Andheri East bypoll: Raj Thackeray requests BJP to withdraw its candidate

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena MNS President Raj Thackeray has added to the drama surrounding the Andheri East Assembly bypoll On Sunday he appealed to the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP to withdraw its candidate from the contest to leave the seat for the Uddhav Thackerayled Shiv Senarsquos Rutuja Latke the widow of Ramesh Latke whose death has caused the midterm pollWith Monday being the last day for nomination withdrawal Raj wrote to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday and posted the letter on social media A day before releasing the letter Raj had a meeting with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday There have been talks of holding the bypoll unopposed but it seemed that the estranged parties have not been able to confer about it in a manner suitable for such deliberations needing a third party to break the iceIn response Fadnavis said Rajrsquos appeal will be discussed with the BJP party high command and colleagues and the ally CM Shindersquos Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray welcomed the gesture and said it was prepared to contest and win the bypoll even if polling was held BJPrsquos Murji Patel has filed his nomination MNS which contested unsuccessfully in 2009 getting over 25000 votes and 2014 over 9000 but skipped the 2019 election is not in the race Its absence benefitted the Sena in 2019 Raj has not declared his support to any party in the bypoll Observers saw multiple impacts of the appealAlso Read Mumbai The battle for cosmopolitan Andheri EastRutuja Latke PicPradeep DhivarldquoIf not honoured it could give an edge to Raj cousinrsquos candidate whose major plank is sympathy and Marathi vote bank which otherwise gets split between the Thackeraysrdquo said an insider but he also added that on the other side the unopposed election will deny the Thackeray Sena the muchneeded traction ahead of the BMC polls especially when it has been allotted a new election symbol In revival mode MNS will be a party to watch out for in the BMC polls multicorner contestsSpecial requestAddressing Fadnavis as lsquodear friendrsquo Raj said ldquoI am writing this letter with a special request His Latkersquos widow Rujuta Latke has filed her candidature for the same Andheri bypoll Shri Ramesh was an efficient worker who began his journey moving from being a lsquoshakhapramukhrsquo I have witnessed his journey and growth in the political arena After his death to see his wife become an MLA in his constituency will be solace to his departed soulrdquoldquoI sincerely request you to not enter this bypoll and put up a candidate against Rujuta Latke Whenever there has been a situation wherein a sitting MLA has passed away and a family member has filed for their candidature our party has refrained from fighting the bypoll This is our way of paying our reverence to the departed soulrdquo Raj said further ldquoI appeal to you with these sentiments in mind Sentiments such as these are part of our Maharashtrarsquos culture I hope you will consider my appealrdquo said the MNS chiefPawar endorsesRaj found endorsement in the Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar who said there shouldnrsquot be a poll when the regular polls will be held in another one and a half years or so ldquoThe unopposed election will send a good message across the staterdquo he saidFadnavis said he alone could not decide in the party ldquoEven if I have to think about it I will have to discuss it with my party high command party colleagues and CM Eknath Shinde who is with us because we have not only announced a candidate but fielded him as wellrdquo he said adding ldquoHe Raj has written a letter out of good sentimentrdquo The DyCM said that the city BJP president Ashish Shelar had met Raj on Sunday to seek his support for the partyrsquos candidate ldquoRaj Thackeray expressed the sentiment to Shelar and later wrote a letter to merdquoAbout the proposal he said ldquoWhenever we were requested in an appropriate manner in the past we had acted accordingly It is not that we havenrsquot honoured such appeals It happened in the late RR Patilrsquos case and a couple of legislative council pollsrdquo he saidThackeray Sena spokesperson Arvind Sawant said it was a letter that had to show our culture to the BJP but added that it was better late than never ldquoThe party that has frozen our party name and symbol on the pretext that they will be misused in the Andheri bypoll has been lying Where are they Are they contesting the electionrdquo he asked hoping for better senseUddhav Thackeray thanked Pawar for showing the way even as his silence on Rajrsquos letter to Fadnavis spoke a thousand words His statement on Sunday heavily praised Pawar but didnrsquot mention his cousin ldquoThe Shiv Sena family will be grateful to Pawar saheb for raising the point at his press conference Yashwantrao Chavan Balasaheb Thackeray Vilasrao Deshmukh Pramod Mahajan and Sharad Pawar have taken our culture to a new level I expect that state politics will abide by morality and culture under the guidance of great senior leadersrdquo he said in a statement adding that Shiv Sena has always valued Maharashtrarsquos cultural values