Pankaja Munde thanks Uddhav Thackeray for not putting up candidates against Pritam and herself

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and daughter of late union minister Gopinath Munde, Pankaja Munde, on Sunday expressed her gratefulness and gratitude to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for not putting up his own party candidates against her sister Pritam Munde and herself.

"I express my gratitude to him (Uddhav Thackeray) for the decision of not fielding any candidate against my sister Pritam for the Lok Sabha by elections. We had an alliance for the last 25 years. It was not only an alliance, but it was like a family relation," Pankaja Munde told ANI here.

Thanking the Sena chief again, she said, "He has maintained family relations even after the Mahayuti (alliance) has ended, and I am grateful. We may be fighting separately, but by not putting up a candidate against me, he has stood beside me."

Uddhav Thackeray had declared yesterday that the Shiv Sena would not field candidates against Pankaja and Pritam Munde who are BJP candidates contesting in the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly and Lok Sabha by-poll election respectively.

"We will not contest against Pankaja and Pritam Munde. We have family ties with the Mundes' and we will not let politics take over that relation," he said.

Pankaja Munde is an MLA from Beed. The BJP has decided to field Gopinath Munde's other daughter Pritam for Lok Sabha by-election from Beed after the seat fell vacant due to former union minister's untimely death in a car accident on June 3 this year.

In a list of 286 candidates finalized on Saturday, the Shiv Sena has decided not to put up any candidate against her either.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ended its 25-year-old alliance with the Shiv Sena on Thursday and decided to contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections with smaller allied parties.

Maharashtra will go to polls on October 15, while the counting of votes will take place on October 18. There are 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra.