Civic polls: Raut hints at Sena going it alone

‘There will be the inevitable bargaining and bickering before seat-sharing. Why to get into all that?”

In a strong signal to his coalition allies, the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Sanjay Raut on Sunday said his party would go it alone in the crucial 2022 civic body polls in Maharashtra unless a “respectable seat sharing arrangement” was reached among the three parties of the ruling ‘Maha Vikas Aghadi’ (MVA) government.

Mr. Raut, who was addressing a Sena workers’ meet in Pimpri-Chinchwad as part of preparations for the civic body poll expected to be held in February next year, stressed that the Sena was used to fighting alone.

“Now, people will be thinking whether we will have an alliance [before the polls]...there will be the inevitable bargaining and bickering before seat-sharing. Why to get into all that? We [the Sena] are used to fighting alone and must be prepared to fight on all seats. If there is an alliance [with the Congress and NCP] then fine, else we will go it alone…we will not compromise on our self-respect,” said the Sena leader.