MUMBAI: A tiff broke out in Maha Vikas Aghadi Friday over having a CM face for the assembly polls, reports Chaitanya Marpakwar. While former CM Prithviraj Chavan of Congress said that there was a tradition in Maharashtra that the party in an alliance that wins more seats gets CM’s post, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut countered that the opposition needs a face.
While Raut said that he wasn’t declaring Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray as the CM face, he mentioned that Uddhav had relentlessly raised his voice against PM Modi and BJP at the national-level along with LoP Rahul Gandhi.
Raut also said that had Rahul become the PM face of INDIA bloc before LS polls, Congress would have won more seats and BJP would have been defeated in many seats which were lost by a thin margin.
Raut said people will get to know about the CM face of MVA soon. “So both opposition and governing party need a face for the elections. The opposition parties need a face and in this state (Maharashtra) too, when the opposition has a face, they do well,” Raut added.
Declaring a chief ministerial face before polls has become a contentious matter within MVA. Sena (UBT) is keen on projecting Uddhav as the CM face, but Congress and NCP (SP) don’t want to commit to any face and are instead suggesting that any decision be taken after the poll results.