Sanjay Nirupam to make 'ghar wapasi' in Shiv Sena on Friday

Mumbai, May 1 Former Congress leader and ex-MP Sanjay Nirupam along with his supporters said he would join the ruling Shiv Sena in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday.

"I have met the CM and decided to join the Shiv Sena led by him, along with all my supporters on Friday," an excited Nirupam told mediapersons here, while CM Shinde also made a similar statement.

He described the upcoming development as a 'ghar-wapasi' to the Shiv Sena after around 18 years, where he was a senior leader but had strongly opposed the 2019 Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party with the undivided Shiv Sena, headed by former Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray.

"After joining Shiv Sena, I shall vigorously campaign for all its Lok Sabha candidates in Mumbai and elsewhere," he said.

Nirupam, 59, who hails from Rohtas in Bihar, had quit the undivided Shiv Sena following sharp differences over its anti-north Indian policy, and joined the Congress.

A journalist-turned-politician, Nirupam was twice a Rajya Sabha Member, and later emerged a giant-killer by trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party heavyweight Ram Naik in Mumbai North LS seat in 2009.

Naik had earlier been defeated by the Bollywood actor Govinda Ahuja (2004), and the latter has now joined and is campaigning for the Shiv Sena-MahaYuti LS candidates in the state.

However, Nirupam -- a former executive editor of 'Dopahar Ka Saamana' Hindi daily brought out by the (undivided) Shiv Sena -- could not repeat the feat in 2014 and lost to the BJP's Gopal C. Shetty in the Parliamentary elections in the 'BJP wave' prevailing then.

Later, he was appointed the Mumbai Congress President in 2015, but quit the party in April 2014 after a vitriolic attack on the party leadership following denial of a ticket to contest the Mumbai North West LS constituency.

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