Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday announced that his party would contest the upcoming local body elections in Maharashtra alone, The Hindu reported.

“In an alliance, workers of individual parties don’t get opportunities and it hampers organisational growth,” Raut told reporters in Nagpur. “We will contest polls to Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur and other municipal corporations, zilla parishads and panchayats on our strength.”

Maharashtra minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said on December 25 that pending elections to local bodies in the state would be held by April if the Supreme Court pronounced orders concerning the state’s Other Backward Caste reservation dispute in the first week of January, reported The Hindu.

Raut on Saturday also attacked Maharashtra’s former Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar for his comments on the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s loss in the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

On November 23, the ruling Mahayuti alliance – comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Shiv Sena group led by former Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and the Nationalist Congress Party faction led by Ajit Pawar – won 230 seats in the 288-member Assembly. The Maha Vikas Aghadi – comprising the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the NCP faction headed by Sharad Pawar and the Congress – won 46 seats. BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis was sworn in as the chief minister.

Wadettiwar said on Friday: “There are several reasons for the defeat of the MVA in state Assembly elections. One of the reasons is the delay in seat-sharing arrangements. It took 20 days for the MVA leaders to sort out the mess. Nana Patole [Congress leader] and Sanjay Raut were the two leaders there. Had it been solved in two days, we would have got 18 extra days to campaign.”

Wadettiwar responded to Raut’s comments on Saturday, saying that the Congress would seek clarification from party leader Uddhav Thackeray on whether Raut’s statements reflected the stance of the Uddhav Sena.

On Saturday, Raut also hinted at a growing divide in the Opposition INDIA bloc, saying the alliance had not been able to appoint a convener. He urged the Congress to shoulder the responsibility of saving the alliance.

“Congress is the biggest party,” Raut was quoted as saying by ANI. “It is true that the INDIA alliance was formed for the Lok Sabha elections and after the elections not a single meeting of the INDIA alliance was held.”

Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Supriya Sule also said that local body elections should be fought separately.

“Local body polls are meant to provide opportunities for party workers,” Sule was quoted as saying by The Times of India on Saturday. “They should be given justice.”