In what can be termed as a sort of licking of wounds following a disastrous defeat in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, two of the leading Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies continued to engage each other and the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by sniping at them.
SS-UBT Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday morning hailed Congress' newly-elected Wayanad (Lok Sabha) MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a 'sherni' or tigress who came into the Parliament soon after taking the oath of MP.
The sari-clad Priyanka, 52 - taking a leaf from her elder brother and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, 54 - proudly held aloft a small red-coloured copy of the Constitution when she was administered the oath, starting off her maiden term in the lower house of Parliament.
A thrilled Raut welcomed her with a post: "The tigress has come to Parliament!"
Present in the house to witness the momentous occasion were her family members including her children Raihan, 24, and Miraya, 22; her sibling Rahul Gandhi, their mother and Rajya Sabha member Sonia Gandhi, 77.
Back in Mumbai, SS-UBT's Leader of Opposition (Council) Ambadas Danve took potshots at the Congress for the second consecutive day, venting his bitterness at the MVA's loss in the just-concluded state Legislative Assembly polls.
Targeting the state Congress leadership, Danve said that "they were very overconfident after the victory in the Lok Sabha elections" which led to the rout – indirectly pointing an accusing finger at the party ally.
"After winning the LS polls, the Congress seemed to have become extra over-confident… They were on the verge of winning Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana and even Maharashtra… But some of their workers were seen discussing who would become the CM and Ministers or what portfolios they would get. This is the fact," said Danve.
While reiterating that his party will remain with the MVA, Danve said that "if SS (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray was the 'CM face' in the Assembly polls then "we could have certainly swung some 2-5 percent of the votes in our favour" – hinting that the poll outcome would have been radically different.
Several leaders raised murmurs of going 'solo' in future polls when it meets again after rebuilding the ruins of the SS-UBT at one of the 'political autopsy' meetings presided over by Thackeray on Wednesday, following the vertical split of June 2022.
Many leaders and workers wanted the party to think of contesting the coming local bodies polls independently, even as SS-UBT MP Priyanka Chaturvedi on Thursday demanded that the new MahaYuti regime should expedite the process for the nearly two dozen civic bodies awaiting elections for over two years.
However, apart from the minor ruckus, MVA allies including Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, General Secretary Jitendra Awhad, state President Jayant R. Patil, and Congress-SS (UBT) leaders have protested at the alleged role of EVMs in the 'totally unexpected' results.
Other MVA parties such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Peasants & Workers Party, and many more opposition outfits, including Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Omprakash B. alias Bachhu Kadu's Prahar Janshakti Party, have raised their voices against EVMs, and most leaders are demanding re-election in the state.
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