"Ramdas Athawale is not upset; he is with Mahayuti alliance": BJP's Pravin Darekar ahead of BMC polls

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], December 30 (ANI): Amid dissatisfaction over the seat-sharing arrangements within the Mahayuti ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, BJP MLC Pravin Darekar on Tuesday said that Republican Party of India (RPI) chief Ramdas Athawale is "not upset" and is with the Mahayuti alliance.
Speaking to reporters after meeting Athawale, Darekar said that his participation in the government and his respect will be ensured in a "dignified manner".
"Ramdas Athawale is not upset; he is with the Mahayuti alliance. But he has his own party, so there is pressure from his party workers. Every party's workers feel they should contest the elections... There are 227 seats and thousands of workers who are interested in contesting elections... I believe that after discussing this with the Chief Minister, his participation in the government and his respect will be ensured in a dignified manner," the BJP MLC told reporters.
On the other side, Athawale told reporters that Darekar came to convey a message from Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had spoken to him earlier in the morning.
"Pravin Darekar came and said that he understands our displeasure... The CM also called me this morning, and Pravin Darekar came with his message. He said that of the list of 39 people we had released, those 39 people have filled out the forms... We told Pravin Athawale said he had asked Darekar to arrange a meeting with Fadnavis on Wednesday morning to resolve the issue and seek a fair allocation of seats for his party," he said.
"We also said that if we meet with DY CM Eknath Shinde, and if some seats can be allocated from his quota, then that can be considered," the RPI chief added.
He further said that the party would decide its future course of action after discussions with the Chief Minister, signalling that the seat-sharing issue remains unresolved within the alliance.
"If we have to move forward together, then a decision has to be made. Even if we got six or seven seats, there wouldn't have been any problem. But the seats you allocated were seats that we hadn't even asked for. That's why we had a discussion today, and after talking with the CM, we will decide on the strategy for what to do next," Athawale added.
The two leaders met at Athawale's residence in Bandra, Mumbai.
Earlier, Athawale accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of sidelining his party during seat-sharing talks for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
Highlighting the RPI's political strength in Mumbai, Athawale said the reunion of the BJP and Shiv Sena had adversely affected his party's chances, adding that the RPI was not even included in seat-sharing discussions. He claimed that the party was informed very late that it had been allotted just six seats.
"The coming together of the BJP and Shiv Sena created a problem in giving tickets to the RPI. The Republican Party is a very strong party in Mumbai... But the BJP has ignored us... We were not called even once during the discussions. If the RPI had been called to the BJP-Shiv Sena discussions, some seats could have been allocated to us... Last night at 2 am, we were told that six seats had been given to us," Athawale told ANI.
The polling for 29 municipal corporation elections across the state, including Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, will be held on January 15, with vote counting scheduled for January 16. (ANI)