Mumbai: Shiv Sena (UBT) on Saturday expelled Subhash Wankhede, former Lok Sabha MP from Hingoli, for the alleged anti-party activities. The action came on the day of Uddhav Thackeray’s Hingoli rally. Mr. Wankhede, who has filed nomination for the Assembly election, had alleged that Assembly election tickets were sold in the party and Uddhav Thackeray turned a blind eye to his complaints.
Wankhede has filed the nomination as an independent candidate and refused to withdraw it defying the party. “With the order of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, former MP Subhash Wankhede has been expelled from the party for anti-party activities,” the Shiv Sena (UBT) said in a statement.
Wankhede, a three-time MLA from Shiv Sena, joined Congress in 2014 and contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Hingoli on a Congress ticket, though he was defeated. After the Shiv Sena split, Wankhede joined the Thackeray faction. He served as a MLA thrice from the Hadgaon Assembly seat in 1995, 1999, 2004 and then as Lok Sabha MP from 2009, but lost the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. He was hopeful of getting a party ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the party fielded Nagesh B. Patil-Ashetkar who defeated the rival Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s candidate Hemant Patil.
After being ignored by the Shiv Sena (UBT) again in the Assembly election, Mr. Wankhede levelled serious allegations against Baban Thorat, the Thackeray faction’s communication chief, accusing him of selling election tickets.
An official from the Shiv Sena (UBT) said, “Mr. Wankhede was working against the Maha Vikas Aghadi and helping rival candidates in three-four Assembly seats.”
The party took action on the day of Mr. Thackeray’s rally at Hingoli for Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance candidates from Kalamnuri, Hingoli and Vasmat assembly seats. Addressing the rally, he said, “Prime Minister Modi and Amit Shah come here and tell people that we abandoned Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology. I abandoned the BJP and not Balasaheb’s ideology.”
On Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan ‘ek hai to safe hai’, the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief said, “We (MVA alliance) are already united, we will wipe out the BJP by staying together.”
