MUMBAI: In what will be his first big election campaign outside Maharashtra, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray will campaign for the upcoming by-poll for Dadra & Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha seat.
While the Sena has fought elections outside the state in Goa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh in the past, Thackeray has not campaigned outside Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said that the Sena president will go to Dadra & Nagar Haveli and campaign for the Sena candidate. Kalaben Delkar, wife of late Mohan Delkar, independent MP from Dadra & Nagar Haveli who allegedly committed suicide in Mumbai in February this year, joined Shiv Sena recently. Kalaben joined Sena in the presence of Thackeray along with her son Abhinav.
Kalaben will be Shiv Sena’s candidate for the upcoming Dadra & Nagar Haveli by-poll being held due to Mohan Delkar’s death. Here, Sena will be pitted against BJP’s Mahesh Gavit, and Congress’s Maheshkumar Dhodi.
Shiv Sena has set up a campaign team in the constituency and Raut said that the Delkars are fighting against the tyrannical rule of the BJP. Raut said that Delkar’s family had even fought against Portuguese rule and claimed that the Delkars had to join Shiv Sena for their safety and protection. Raut said that since the Delkars had a lot of goodwill due to the work they had done, Sena would be able to win its first big poll outside Maharashtra.
The Election Commission recently announced the by-election for Dadra & Nagar Haveli parliamentary seat, a part of the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. The by-poll is scheduled for October 30. Counting will take place on November 2.
