Maharashtra contest: The Uddhav Thackeray faction of Shiv Sena is aiming to contest 8 out of 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region in the upcoming general elections, sources said on Tuesday (October 3).
Uddhav Thackeray has been deliberating the matter with the party workers and leaders for the last few days, as part of which he met the office bearers from the Mumbai North East and the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituencies today.
The Shiv Sena (undivided), which contested the previous Lok Sabha elections in alliance with the BJP, had won three out of the six seats in Mumbai it had contested in.
Shiv Sena had also won Kalyan, Thane, Palghar seats in 2019 besides Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, and Mumbai Northwest seats. However, MPs from Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North West, Palghar, and Kalyan have switched their loyalties to the Shiv Sena led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The UBT is now staking claim over Kalyan, which is represented by Shinde’s son Shrikant, Thane, Palghar and Bhiwandi seats in the MMR region along with the Mumbai North East.
"We have a candidate in the former Mumbai North East MP Sanjay Dina Patil who has joined Shiv Sena (UBT) and we are keen to contest from this seat. We are ready to leave Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North seats for the Congress and the NCP. The Congress had contested the Bhiwandi seat in the previous elections but we are keen to fight this time," Shiv Sena (UBT) sources said.
Who defeated whom in 2019?
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP’s Poonam Mahajan had defeated Congress’ Priya Dutt from Mumbai North Central.
Mumbai North seat is a BJP fortress.
In 2019, sitting MP Gopal Shetty won with a huge margin by defeating actor-turned-politician Urmila Matondkar, who contested on Congress ticket.
BJP's Kapil Patil had defeated Congress' Suresh Taware in Bhiwandi while the Palghar seat was won by Shiv Sena (undivided).
"We will discuss our stand with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) allies during deliberations," sources said.
Uddhav Thackeray joined hands with the Congress and NCP after the Maharashtra Assembly elections in 2019 in which Shiv Sena (undivided) and BJP won in alliancem however, could not reach a consensus on the chief minister's post. Thackeray was sworn in as the chief minister before confronting a massive revolt from Eknath Shinde and MLAs backing him last year. His government collapsed and Shinde joined hands with the BJP to form government.
(With PTI inputs)
