Ask MVA partners if I am okay as CM face: Uddhav Thackeray

New Delhi: Shiv Sena-UBT supremo Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday dropped hints that he was ready to be projected as the chief ministerial face in the Maharashtra Assembly elections likely to be held in October. Thackeray’s comments came on a day when he met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and other INDIA bloc representatives here.

Thackeray was accompanied by his son Aditya and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut.

“The farmers and youngsters of Maharashtra are fed up with the opportunistic BJP-led alliance. The 13 crore people of Maharashtra are looking towards change,” Kharge said on X after the meeting.

Gandhi said the meeting with Thackeray was held in the context of the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra.

“The Maha Vikas Aghadi will contest the elections together and win,” he said on his WhatsApp channel.

Thackeray served as the chief minister of Maharashtra for two-and-a-half years as head of the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress – Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance before his government was pulled down by the BJP after dissent in the Sena ranks. “If my colleagues (in MVA) feel that I have done excellent work, then ask them whether they want me as the chief minister. People will decide,” Thackeray told reporters here before meeting the Congress leadership. Thackeray also met NCP-SP supremo Sharad Pawar, who had played a key role in stitching together the MVA coalition after the 2019 assembly elections.

Thackeray, who steered Maharashtra during the Covid-19 pandemic, said he had never dreamt of becoming the state’s chief minister.

“Ask them if they want me as the chief minister,” he said to questions of being projected as the chief ministerial face of the MVA alliance.

“I had not dreamt of being a chief minister, nor I wanted to. But I am also not the one who runs away from responsibility. I took up the responsibility and tried to deliver to the best of my abilities,” Thackeray said.

“If my colleagues feel that I have done excellent work, then ask them whether they want me as chief minister. People will decide,” he said.

Thackeray also met Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O’Brien, AAP leader Sanjay Singh and Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha member Aditya Yadav among others.

He was also scheduled to meet former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday.

The Shiv Sena-UBT chief said that he was in the national capital to meet the INDIA bloc leaders as there was no formal meeting of the opposition alliance leaders after the Lok Sabha elections.

The elections are due in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand later this year and the INDIA bloc should contest the polls as a united force.

Independent Lok Sabha member from Sangli Vishal Patil, who had defeated Shiv Sena-UBT nominee Chandrahar Patil, also met Thackeray here.

Vishal Patil quit the Congress party to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an independent after the Sangli parliamentary seat was given to Shiv Sena-UBT as part of the seat-sharing arrangement of the MVA coalition.

“If a mistake is committed, I am not the one who will continue to hold a grudge,” Thackeray said.

He said that he was hurt as the Shiv Sena-UBT candidate lost the Sangli seat, but was happy that the BJP was defeated.

Vishal Patil has aligned with the MVA and assured that the same old mistakes will not be repeated in the upcoming elections, Thackeray said.

Vishal is the grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil.