Mumbai: In the first major electoral battle of the two Shiv Senas—one led by Eknath Shinde and the other led by Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray—the two factions finished at nearly equal strength in the 13 seats they directly contested against each other.
As of 8.30 pm, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena had won two seats and was leading in four others, including the chief minister’s home turf of Thane and his son Shrikant Shinde’s constituency of Kalyan, both by a massive margin of more than two lakh. The Shiv Sena (UBT), on the other hand, has so far won three seats and is leading in three others.
On one seat, Mumbai North West, there was a neck-and-neck fight between Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar and Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar. At 8.30pm, the Election Commission website was showing Kirtikar to be leading by one vote. Eventually, Waikar was declared winner by 48 votes.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai Tuesday evening, Uddhav Thackeray said his party will be challenging the Mumbai North West election result.
The Shiv Sena underwent a vertical split in June 2022 when Shinde walked out of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, made of the undivided Shiv Sena, the undivided Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress, causing the MVA government to topple. Shinde, who had the support of a majority of the party’s MLAs, went on to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a government with himself as the chief minister.
Subsequently, the Election Commission and Maharashtra Speaker Rahul Narwekar gave the Shinde-led party the tag of the “real Shiv Sena”, along with the undivided Shiv Sena’s symbol of the bow and arrow. The Shiv Sena (UBT) fought the 2024 Lok Sabha election on a ‘mashaal (flaming torch)’ symbol.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena contested 15 of Maharashtra’s 48 parliamentary seats as part of the Mahayuti alliance, which also includes the BJP and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) contested 21 seats as part of the MVA, which also includes the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress.
The two Senas were locked in a direct conflict in 13 seats, including some of the party’s traditional bastions such as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Thane, and three of the six seats in Mumbai.
Overall across Maharashtra the Shiv Sena (UBT) has won four seats and is leading in six others.
In 2019, the undivided Shiv Sena won a whopping 18 Lok Sabha seats. Thirteen MPs eventually joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, which has repeated most incumbents this time.
Also read: Defectors, homegrown workers, caste — political messaging behind parties’ Maharashtra RS picks
The Mumbai seats
Of Mumbai’s six Lok Sabha constituencies, three — Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North West — saw a direct Shiv Sena vs Shiv Sena tussle.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Yamini Jadhav and incumbent MP Rahul Shewale trailed against Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant and Anil Desai, respectively, by more than 50,000 votes. By 8.30 pm, the EC had announced Desai’s victory.
A victory in the Mumbai seats is especially significant as this is the city in which the undivided Shiv Sena was born in 1966 with its “sons of the soil” agenda and a stance to prevent migrants from getting most of Mumbai’s jobs.
Within Mumbai, the Mumbai South Central seat — where Shiv Sena (UBT) is leading — was also an important contest as it includes the undivided Shiv Sena’s Marathi-speaking bastions of Dadar, Parel, and Mahim.
In 2014 and 2019, the undivided Shiv Sena won the Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North West seats.
Also read: Maharashtra’s holy Indrayani is now ugly green. Everyone’s playing blame game, CM to govt bodies
Shinde’s home turf of Thane
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena is leading in Thane, which is CM Shinde’s home turf. Within the Mahayuti, the BJP was keen on contesting the Thane seat, but the Shinde-led Shiv Sena fought hard for it and kept it in its kitty.
The seat was won by the undivided Shiv Sena in 2019, and the incumbent MP Rajan Vichare, who chose to stay with the Shiv Sena (UBT), was that party’s official candidate against Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Naresh Mhaske.
In an interview with ThePrint last month, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis spoke about how the Shinde-led Shiv Sena had played the ‘Anand Dighe’ card to get the seat within the Mahayuti.
“Anand Dighe saheb had won this seat for the Shiv Sena. CM Shinde said since he is the legatee of Anand Dighe, he would not be able to face his cadre or bring them enthusiasm, if he let the seat go. So ultimately, we took Palghar and gave them Thane,” Fadnavis had said.
The undivided Shiv Sena won its first election in Thane and was always popular in the satellite town of Mumbai, but late Sena leader Anand Dighe is largely credited with expanding the party’s roots in Thane and its neighbouring area such as Bhiwandi and Kalyan. Shinde calls Dighe his mentor. After Dighe died in 2001, Shinde took to overseeing the activities of the undivided Shiv Sena in Thane.
In Thane, the Lok Sabha contest between the two Senas was as much a war over Dighe’s legacy as it was over party founder Bal Thackeray’s.
Also read: Dada, vahini, saheb & tai — the great Pawar family slugfest that’s keeping Baramati on edge
Kalyan and Nashik
In Nashik, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena is trailing the Shiv Sena (UBT) by a fat margin of 1.4 lakh votes.
Like Thane, Nashik was yet another seat, which the Shinde-led Shiv Sena fought for within the Mahayuti and wrested for its sitting MP Hemant Godse. Godse, who won the seat as a candidate of the undivided Shiv Sena in 2014 and 2019, joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena after the split.
While the Ajit Pawar-led NCP wanted this seat for its leader Chhagan Bhujbal, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena wanted to repeat incumbent Godse, who eventually fought against the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rajabhau Waje.
Meanwhile, in Kalyan, Shinde’s son and incumbent MP Shrikant Shinde is leading against his Shiv Sena (UBT) counterpart, Vaishali Darekar-Rane.
Also read: Vacant, white-haired villages & ‘money order economy’ — how development eluded Ratnagiri
The Marathwada seats
In Marathwada, the two Shiv Senas contested directly against each other in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly Aurangabad) and Hingoli. The Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Sandipan Bhumre was leading in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar against Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Chandrakant Khaire by about 30,000 votes. In Hingoli, Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Nagesh Patil was leading against the Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Baburao Kohalikar by over 60,000 votes.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has been an important constituency for the undivided Shiv Sena as it was here that the party first tried out its Hindutva agenda in a civic poll in the late 1980s after contesting a bypoll in Mumbai on the Hindutva agenda in the same decade.
Among the other seats that saw a direct Sena vs Sena battle, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena was leading in Maval and Buldhana, while the Shiv Sena (UBT) was leading in Yavatmal Washim, Shirdi and Hathkanangale.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: OBCs say Maratha protests for quotas are a betrayal. ‘They want what was ours’