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After being ignored for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting in Delhi last weekParty chairman and former Maharashtra state minister Mahadev Jankar said on Sunday that the RSP (Socialist Republican Party) will contest all 543 Lok Sabha seats on its own.
We have put forward our candidates on all 543 seats in the country. Our party has a presence in all constituencies of the country,” Cenker said Indian Express Sunday in Ahmed Al-Najjar.
In May, Jankar said his party’s affiliation with the BJP-led National Democratic Assembly in Maharashtra state depended on whether it contested four seats in the Lok Sabha. He said the BJP has been ignoring him and his party, who primarily represent the Dhangar community, for some time now. We did not receive an invitation to attend the National Democratic Assembly meeting held last week. Likewise, we were not invited to the swearing-in ceremony held in Maharashtra. “We have decided to chart our own path,” said Jhankar, adding that he will be contesting from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls.
Asked if the RSP had cut ties with the BJP, Jankar said, “We have decided to contest all the Lok Sabha seats first and then plan to contest all the 288 assembly seats. This clears things up.”
On the possibility of entering the fold of Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA), “MVA did not invite us… if they invite us respectfully, we can consider it,” said Jankar, adding that he joined the BJP in 2014 because of the late Gopinath Mundi.
When contacted for comments, Sanjay Raut, a spokesperson for the Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray, which is part of the MVA, said, “It is not true that we did not invite Mahadev Jankar and the RSP into the fold of the MVA. Uddhaji personally met Jankar and urged him to join the MVA.”
When asked about this, Jankar said, “With respect I mean, the MVA should be ready to give us the Parbhani Lok Sabha seat. I want to contest the Parbhani seat. If they are ready to give us the Parbhani seat, then we can consider joining the MVA.”
Raut said it would be difficult for Sena to relinquish Parbhani’s seat as there is an MP there. “We can’t ask the current MP not to compete,” he said.
Jankar asked what was the need for ropes in Ajit Pawar and NCP MLAs when the BJP was already the largest party in the Maharashtra assembly. “Devendra Fadnavis said if Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar cooperated with the BJP, it would benefit them both. But the BJP is a big party and what was the need to break the NCP and rope in Ajit Pawar?”
Jankar unsuccessfully contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections against NCP Chairman Sharad Pawar in the Madha seat. In the 2014 elections, he had a tough fight with Supriya Soli in the Baramati seat. He became a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 2015 and Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development and Minister for Fisheries Department in the BJP-Shiv Sena government in 2016.
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