With resentment rife within the regional Congress units, including in Maharashtra, over the party high command’s choice of candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Wednesday said the Congress should have taken “astute and cautious steps” while choosing candidates. He said that without the Congress, Opposition parties in the country cannot move forward.
Speaking in Pune, Mr. Raut, who is one of two Sena candidates for the June 10 elections to the Upper House, said the Congress high command had been fielding outside candidates for some time now which had a demoralising effect on regional leaders and cadre.
“For many years, the Congress [high command] has been sending ‘outsiders’ [in lieu of local candidates]…The Congress in Maharashtra has a number of capable and excellent leaders. While it [choice of RS candidates] is the Congress’s internal matter, nonetheless, looking at the country’s politics at the present time, the Congress should have taken steps in an astute and cautious manner,” the Sena leader said.
On local leaders being upset over Uttar Pradesh Congress leader Imran Pratapgarhi being fielded from Maharashtra, Mr. Raut said: “Certainly, such decisions have a demoralising effect on local leaders… There is no shortage of capable leaders within the Maharashtra Congress. Even in Congress-ruled States like Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, candidates from outside have been fielded for the Upper House.”
Denying suggestions that the Shiv Sena did not want the Congress in Mumbai city, Mr. Raut said the Sena had always advocated the need for a strong Congress, while urging the grand old party to get its act together.
“We need the Congress. We [the Shiv Sena] have always believed that Opposition parties [against the BJP] cannot move forward without the Congress. The Sena has always been urging the Congress to improve its ‘health,’” Mr. Raut said.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress share power in the ruling ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA) coalition in Maharashtra.
Mr. Raut’s remarks come in the backdrop of recent criticism by Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole, who had sternly rebuked the Sena for drawing up the three-ward system for the upcoming Maharashtra civic polls without allegedly consulting the Congress as the arrangement would only benefit the Sena in the high-stakes Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) election.
On Mr. Patole’s ‘Congress will go it alone’ refrain, Mr. Raut said he hoped that all three parties would contest the civic polls together.
“Congress is a national party. It is easier for them to utter this refrain. But it remains to be seen how much success they achieve if they contest alone,” he said.
Hitting out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government, Mr. Raut expressed concern that it would deploy Central agencies to win even the RS polls while remarking that the government could well declare martial law like Bangladesh and Pakistan to crush the Opposition.
“The present political climate in the country is not conducive for democracy. Central agencies like the ED and the CBI are unleashed on anyone who opposes the Central government. The manner in which Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Minister Satyender Jain was arrested in an eight-year-old case is recent proof of this. Mr. Jain was the AAP’s in-charge for the Himachal Pradesh election. The BJP considered him a threat and hence, the ED was deployed against him,” Mr. Raut said.
