Raj Thackeray urges BJP not to contest Andheri East bypoll to show reverence to deceased MLA

Maharashtra Navirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray on Sunday wrote to Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis not to field his partys candidate for the upcoming bypoll of the Andheri East Assembly constituency in reverence to late MLA Ramesh Latke whose death has necessitated the electionWhile Fadnavis has admitted that the letter was sent to him in good faith he said that he would have to discuss with the party leadership before taking a decisionIn a letter addressed to the BJP leader which he posted on social media Raj Thackeray said the MNS will not be contesting the November 3 byelection to show its reverence for the deceased legislatorThe Andheri East bypoll was necessitated after the death of sitting MLA Ramesh Latke and his wife Rutuja has filed her nomination The MNS will not contest the election as our way of paying reverence to the departed soul the MNS chief saidAppealing to Fadnavis Raj Thackeray said I sincerely request you not to enter the byelection and field a candidate against Rutuja Latke I have witnessed late Ramesh Latkes journey and growth in the political arenaAlso Read Shiv Sena poll symbol freeze Thackeray camp knew it had weak case before ECRamesh Latke the sitting MLA from Andheri East died of a cardiac arrest in May this yearThe Congress and Nationalist Congress Party NCP have decided to support Rutuja Latke who is contesting from Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray partyReacting to Raj Thackerays appeal Shiv Sena chief spokesperson and MP Arvind Sawant said I welcome Raj Thackerays appeal but it is too late The nominations have already been filed and the election is forced on us because of the BJP The BJP has contested similar bypolls in the past when the election was necessitated due to a sitting MLAs deathBJP MLC Prasad Lad said Neither Uddhav Thackeray nor any of his colleagues contacted the BJP requesting or appealing to its leaders to not contest the bypolls They were sitting in their ivory towerThe decision of not contesting the byepoll will be taken by leaders Devendra Fadnavis and Ashish Shelar who is the Mumbai BJP unit chief he saidSpeaking to reporters Rutuja Latke said I had earlier thought that this will be a unanimous election but I am ready to fight the bypollReacting to the development Fadnavis said I will have to discuss the issue with our party leaders and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde I admit that he sent the letter in good faith but we will seriously discuss itThe final decision will be taken only after a discussion with the senior leadership in the party I alone cant decide about it The candidates have already filed their nominations as well the BJP leader told reporters hereIn earlier instances when there was proper communication we had decided not to contest bypolls For instance when NCP leader and former home minister R R Patil had died It is not like we BJP never considered opting out of a byelection Whenever there is a proper communication or appeal to made to us we have responded properly he saidFadnavis further stated that BJP leader Ashish Shelar had met Raj Thackeray at latters residence during the day with a request to support the BJPs candidate in the bypollsRaj expressed his wish to Shelar that the BJP should not contest the election Now he has written to me as well the deputy chief minister saidFadnavis however refused to comment on the scathing remarks made by Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana against the BJP alleging that the saffron party is using Eknath Shinde and his factionIt is as good as a small newspaper I will not stoop to comment on whatever is written in that paper It is a onesided newspaper and is left with no option but to be criticise us the BJP leader said adding that nobody reads Saamana these daysThis 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