Cong to back UBT in council polls, eyes RS seat in return

Nagpur: Senior Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar on Thursday said the party is willing to support Uddhav Thackeray in the upcoming Legislative Council polls, but expects a Rajya Sabha seat in return.Speaking with reporters in Nagpur, Wadettiwar was responding to a social media post by NCP (SCP) MP Supriya Sule, who said Uddhav (Thackeray) must contest the polls. With Mahayuti having enough numbers to send only one candidate to the council, Uddhav is seen as a consensus candidate."If Uddhav (Thackeray) is contesting, we will support him. And of course we expect that the Rajya Sabha consensus candidate must be from Congress," said Wadettiwar. But he made it clear that Congress's support is specific to Uddhav, not his party. "If someone else wants to contest, then Mahayuti must discuss this," said Wadettiwar.He was addressing the media on Thursday on the BJP's nation-wide campaign over the failed women's reservation bill. "BJP is trying to create a fake narrative that Congress is responsible for this, but entire country knows the truth. In fact, we demand that the 33% reservation for women bill passed in 2023 be implemented immediately, else we will hit the streets," he said."BJP leaders will never be able to fulfil their dream of Congress-mukt Bharat. They are scared of Congress, hence PM Narendra Modi himself mentioned our party's name 58 times in his address to the nation," said Wadettiwar. He added that BJP was trying to push a delimitation bill instead. "It is such a shame that BJP used our sisters as a decoy and attempted to attack democracy. But they have been exposed and are struggling to justify it to people," he said.Wadettiwar said BJP leaders in Maharashtra are left with no choice but to follow Centre's diktat. "The leaders here know the reality, but once orders come from Delhi, everybody in Maharashtra BJP has to get to work," said Wadettiwar. He said when the 33% reservation bill was passed a couple years ago, CM Devendra Fadnavis had given a "wonderful" speech praising it. "He (Fadnavis) forgot to thank Congress for supporting the bill back then, but that's fine. His speech was really good which proves that BJP accepted that the reservation bill had already passed as per their wish," said Wadettiwar.
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