Photo Credit - TV9 Marathi

Tejas Navale

Pune: The Shivsangram Party, founded by late Maratha reservation supporter Vinayak Mete, decided to remain equidistant from both sides, i.e., Mahayuti and Mahavikas Aghadi, in the current Lok Sabha election and not to support or campaign for any party in this election. However, the party has decided to contest 12 seats in the state assembly elections.

Dr. Jyoti Mete, the National President of the Shivsangram Association, held a press conference yesterday in Pune and announced this decision. Yesterday, the state executive meeting of the Shivsangram Association took place in Pune. In this meeting, the party leaders took a stand against contesting this Lok Sabha election and instead chose to work for the upcoming assembly elections of the state, which will take place somewhere in October or November this year.

"At that time, a separate meeting will be held, and the next direction of the party will be decided," said Dr. Jyoti Mete. She said, "The people of Beed had asked me to contest the Lok Sabha elections. But I declared that I would not contest Lok Sabha in Beed. We scrutinised the assembly. Therefore, to respect the interests of the people, a decision was taken regarding the Legislative Assembly, and we withdrew from contesting the Lok Sabha elections.

The Shivsangram Party is a regional political party primarily active in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra. The party has a strong hold amongst the Maratha community in the region, which is one of the dominant communities in Maharashtra.

Though the Shivsangram Party has not achieved any significant electoral success on a statewide level, it has managed to win a few seats in local body elections and has occasionally allied with larger political parties in Maharashtra for electoral alliances. Now that Shivsangram has decided to stay neutral in the coming election, it will be interesting to see who will benefit from the Shivsangram party's decision.