CM Shinde's diktat to partymen: Show good results in your Lok Sabha areas, or else...

Is the chief minister concerned that his partymen may not work wholeheartedly in all areas where the Mahayuti alliance candidates of the Ajit Pawar NCP and BJP will contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections Sources on Thursday told midday that it is very much so and that Eknath Shinde recently gathered his party MLAs for a meeting in Mumbai where it is reliably learnt they were told to ensure good results for the allies failing which there will be trouble for their party in the yearending Assembly pollsA Shinde Sena leader speaking to midday on condition of anonymity said the CM did not directly say that a poor showing in an allyrsquos Lok Sabha seat will result in them being stripped of their MLA ticket But that was more or less the gist of the diktat ldquoShindesaheb did mention that if one fails to maintain the lead in the parliamentary elections it could impact the prospects of our candidates during the Assembly pollsrdquo the leader addedUnease in grassrootsFollowing unease among the party rankandfile even as the three allies are struggling to accept a seatsharing formula Shinde recently called for the meeting of MLAs to assuage them that the situation is under control It was in this meeting that Shinde told party leaders to give their best to ensure massive wins for all Mahayuti candidates irrespective of which party they are fromErstwhile unified NCP leaders and unified Sena leaders never see eyetoeye in the hinterland where the two parties were bitter enemies over decades The recent splits in the two parties have resulted in one faction each getting into an alliance on either side of the political divide The Sharad Pawar faction is aligned with the Uddhav Sena while the Ajit Pawar faction is allied with the Shinde SenaTrue but nothing specialShiv Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske confirmed to midday that the CM has indeed asked the MLAs and former corporators to ensure good results in their respective constituencies but sought to downplay the development ldquoThis is not the first time this is happeningrdquo said Mhaske ldquoDuring every election the party calls for meetings and urges its leaders to ensure a good show in their respective areas But the CM did not warn that this will affect our candidature in the next Assembly electionrdquoHow the numbers stack upSince the split in the Sena 41 MLAs and 13 MPs have joined the Shinde camp These include six MLAs from the 14 in Mumbai and two MPs out of three in the city The faction has a further 40 excorporators across municipalitiesShindersquos instructions also assume significance as senior party leader Anandrao Adsul has already announced is opposition to Navneet Ranarsquos candidature saying he will take on the rabblerouser in Amravati which has been witnessing an ugly power tussle between BJP and Shinde campsAdsul has thrice contested the seat successfully in 2009 and 2014 and unsuccessfully in 2019 on a unified Shiv Sena ticket being defeated by Rana who later joined the BJP After the Sena rebellion Adsul sided with the Shinde camp and was expecting a ticket againMany are upsetAlso on Thursday Shinde leader Arjun Khotkar told the media that the BJP should show some respect to Sena leaders while discussing seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha seats or it might not go down well with the party cadre which in turn may affect the poll outcome ldquoSince the BJP has announced its list I have urged the CM to declare 13 seats all reigning Shinde Sena seatsrdquo said Khotkar ldquoBut this did not happenrdquo Khotkar was a minister in the Uddhav Thackerayled government when he joined the Shinde faction In fact while quitting Uddhav Thackerayrsquos party Khotkar in his press conference said he had joined Shinde camp due to ldquocertain circumstances and problemsrdquoMore discontentThere are differences between the Shinde Sena and BJP over several other seats like South Mumbai NorthWest Mumbai Thane RatnagiriSindhudurg and Dharashiv Osmanabad The unified Shiv Sena candidates had won these seats in 2019 Today only Gajanan Kirtikar the Mumbai NorthWest MP is with Shinde Sena while all other winners are with the Uddhav camp There are murmurs of anger in other seats too like Nashik and YavatmalWashim While sitting MP Hemant Godse from Nashik is with Shinde Sena and wants to contest from there BJP and Ajit Pawar faction of NCP have also staked a claim on the constituency Bhavana Gawli from Shinde Sena is the sitting MP from YavatmalWashim and is in the race but the BJP has staked a claim on this seat too