Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024 | Shiv Sena’s ‘missing’ Palghar MLA Shrinivas Vanga returns home

Palghar: Shiv Sena MLA Shrinivas Vanga, who represents Maharashtra’s Palghar constituency, has returned home two days after remaining unreachable.

Earlier, his family members had said that the legislator was upset after being denied a ticket by the Eknath Shinde-led party for the upcoming state polls. He had apparently been incommunicado since Monday evening.

His family had not filed any police complaint.

After his return on Wednesday, Vanga, said, “I needed rest and hence decided to be away from home and others for a couple of days.” He did not elaborate on where he was for two days.

Vanga had told reporters on Monday that he committed a “grave mistake” by siding with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and joining his party. Videos of Vanga’s emotional responses had gone viral on social media.

Vanga, the son of late BJP MP Chintaman Vanga, became an MLA after winning the 2019 assembly elections as a candidate of undivided Shiv Sena from the Palghar (Scheduled Tribes) seat.

After a split in the Sena, he had supported Shinde. He was hoping to be renominated from the seat by the party.

However, the Sena nominated former MP Rajendra Gavit, who had also sided with Shinde when he rebelled against the then Sena head Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022.

Vanga had also described Thackeray, who now heads Shiv Sena (UBT), as a “dev manus” (God-like man).

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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