Sanjay Raut hails Priyanka Gandhi as 'sherni'; SS-UBT leader whacks Congress

Mumbai/New Delhi: Licking the wounds after the devastating defeat in the recent Maharashtra Assembly elections, two major Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies continued to snipe at each other and the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

SS-UBT Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Thursday morning heralded Congress' newly-elected Wayanad (Lok Sabha) MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as a 'sherni' (tigress) who had come to the Parliament soon after she took her 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!"

At that time, 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 had been the ‘CM face’ in the Assembly polls, “we could have definitely swung some 2-5 percent of the votes in our favour” - hinting that the polls outcome would have been drastically different.

On Wednesday, at one of the 'political autopsy' meetings presided over by Thackeray, several party leaders raised murmurs of ‘ekla chalo’ (going solo) in the future elections after rebuilding the ruins of the SS-UBT after the vertical split of June 2022.

Many leaders and workers wanted the party to consider fighting the upcoming 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, barring the minor fracas, the MVA allies including Nationalist Congress Party (SP) President Sharad Pawar, General Secretary Jitendra Awhad, state President Jayant R. Patil, and leaders of Congress-SS (UBT) have cried foul over the alleged role of EVMs in the 'totally unexpected' results.

Other MVA parties like Communist Party of India (Marxist), Peasants & Workers Party, and several more opposition outfits, like Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Omprakash B. alias Bachhu Kadu's Prahar Janshakti Party have raised the cudgels against EVMs, with many leaders even demanding a re-election in the state.