Addressing a public gathering here on Saturday, Ramdas Athawale said, "Devendra Fadnavis and Eknath Shinde have come together, and Mahayuti together has shut down all the businesses of Uddhav and Raj Thackeray."
This election will be a life-changing one for the people of Mumbai and for Mumbai itself. We have to teach a lesson to those who only care about their own self-interest," Fadnavis said while addressing a gathering at the NSCI Dome in Worli.
Ajit Pawar's faction has reunited with Sharad Pawar's faction of NCP for the Pune Municipal Corporation elections, forcing Mahayuti alliance partners to go against each other.
Speaking to ANI on Friday about the 2026 BMC elections, Athawale said his party would remain part of the Mahayuti alliance and support the formation of a Mahayuti-led civic body in Mumbai.
"The unopposed way of ending democracy where they settle with the opposition candidate, either by scaring him with the threats of ED, CBI, or by bribing him," Chaturvedi told reporters.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale on Wednesday stated that the Republican Party of India (Athawale) (RPI(A)) delegation presented a list of demands to the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, seeking at least 5-6 of the total 17 seats mentioned in the list.
"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..
This came after the Republican Party of India (RPI) chief Ramdas Athawale accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of sidelining his party during seat-sharing talks for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections.
The meeting followed Athawale's public expression of dissatisfaction earlier in the day regarding the allocation of seats to RPI (A) in the alliance's proposed BMC arrangement.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut launched an attack against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after the Mahayuti announced its seat-sharing arrangement for the BMC elections, alleging that the Shinde Sena "bowed down" in front of the BJP.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said that Maharashtra Deputy Ajit Pawar has to answer to the Mahayuti ally BJP for joining hands with the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) for Pimpri Chinchwada civic polls.