Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday expelled five rebel leaders of the party after they did not withdraw the nominations filed for the upcoming assembly elections. These leaders filed nominations as independent candidates after they were refused party tickets.
These leaders include Vishwas Nandekar district head of Wani in Yevatmal, Chandrakant Ghugul from Zari, Sanjay Awari from Maregaon, Bhiwandi East MLA Rupesh Mhatre and Prasad Thackeray from Wani.
Shiv Sena (UBT) announced the expulsion asserting that these five leaders were involved in anti-party activities. Mhatre is the incumbent MLA from Bhiwandi but was denied a party ticket this time. Following this, he decided to contest as an independent and filed a nomination. Similarly, Pednekar also did not withdraw his nomination from Versova.
Many other leaders had also filed nominations as independents but withdrew after the party managed to convince them. These names include former Shiv Sena Corporator Rajendra Waghmare who withdrew his nomination from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar.
These five independent candidates have raised tensions for the Shiv Sena (UBT) ahead of the polling which is scheduled to be held on November 20. It is fighting along with Congress and NCP (SCP) under the banner of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) against the ruling Mahayuti. Mahayuti constitutes the BJP, Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP. The highly bipolar elections between coalitions have led to various unsatisfied candidates leaving parties. In MVA alone, 14 leaders filed nominations defying party commands. However, a few of them withdrew later. The results of the polling will be declared on November 23.
