Shiv Sena out of West Bengal polls, to back Mamata Banerjee

The Shiv Sena has decided to opt out of the upcoming West Bengal Assembly elections but the party has decided to wholeheartedly support All India Trinamool Congress leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a top official said here on ThursdaySena MP and Chief Spokesperson Sanjay Raut said that since the West Bengal polls are turning out to be Didi vs All the Shiv Sena has decided not to contest the elections but will stand in solidarity with her Looking at the present scenario it appears like a Didi vs All fight All Ms Money Muscle and Media are being used against Mamata Didi We wish her a roaring success because we believe she is the real Bengal Tigress said RautHe said that the decision was taken after discussions with Shiv Sena President and Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray However MVA sources said the move could have been prompted to ensure that there is no division of votes in the West Bengal polls that could damage Trinamools prospects visavis the BJP as the Sena was tentatively planning to contest around 60 seatsAs part of its strategy to acquire an allIndia presence in January the Sena had announced plans to sound the poll bugle in West Bengal where it had contested the 2016 Assembly and 2019 Lok Sabha polls but notched nil in terms of seats Earlier the Sena ruling Maharashtra in alliance with Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress has contested various elections in different states including Delhi Uttar Pradesh Bihar Gujarat Jammu amp Kashmir and Goa besides West BengalThe saffron party has justified its ventures in other states on grounds that the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre has been attempting to destabilize or dethrone Constitutionallyelected governments in all Oppositionruled states including Maharashtra and West Bengal Incidentally ruling ally NCP President Sharad Pawar has already said he would visit Kolkata to extend support to Mamata Banerjee as part of plans to build up a grand alliance of national and state opposition parties before the 2024 Lok Sabha electionsSimilarly political sources also do not rule out the possibility of a repeat of Maharashtras MVA experiment SenaNCPCongress with differing ideologies joining hands in West Bengal if the eastern state brews up a fractured mandate in the elections the results of which are expected in earlyMay The unthinkable happened in Maharashtra and it is working smoothly Anything is possible even in WB The MVA is cited as a national example to make states strong a senior state leader said guardedly on the odds with three archrivals in West Bengal Congress Left Front and Trinamool Congress hugging each other postpolls to keep the BJP at bayOn its part the BJP is in a hyperaggressive mood to capture West Bengal and is leaving no stone unturned to conquer what was a Communist fortress for nearly three decades before Mamata planted the Trinamool flag there 10 years ago The relations between the Thackeray family and Mamata Banerjee a former Union Minister go back several decades In 2017 Uddhav 60 and Mamata 66 had a cordial meeting in Mumbai when the latter had come to invite Indian corporate honchos for the West Bengal Global Investment Summit2018 held in KolkataThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever