Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) Wednesday released its first list of 17 candidates for Maharashtra — including in the contentious seats of Sangli and Mumbai South Central, where ally Congress also wants to field its own candidates.
With most of the MPs of the erstwhile undivided Shiv Sena having sided with the party led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde following the split in 2022, the latest list shows that the Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) has had to fall back on former public representatives — ex-MPs, MLAs and mayors.
Since 2014, Sangli, once considered a Congress bastion, has been represented by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sanjaykaka Patil. While the Congress continues to insist on the seat, the Shiv Sena has so far refused to budge, announcing wrestler Chandrahar Patil as its candidate for the seat. This, according to sources in the Congress, could lead to a “friendly contest” there.
“The issue will now be resolved at the Delhi (central) leadership level, most likely by Wednesday itself. Otherwise, there will be a triangular contest between the BJP, us, and the Shiv Sena (UBT). In a bilateral contest, we were confident about winning it. Now it is a risk,” a senior Congress leader told ThePrint on the condition of anonymity.
Mumbai South Central, currently represented by Rahul Shewale of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, is a similarly contested seat. According to party sources, the Congress wants to field its Mumbai president and former Maharashtra minister Varsha Gaikwad from there but the Shiv Sena (UBT) has now announced Anil Desai, a confidant of Thackeray whose Rajya Sabha term ended this year, as its candidate for the seat.
The development comes at a time when the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — a coalition whose members include the Shiv Sena (UBT), the Congress, and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) — has been rocked by serious disagreements over seat-sharing. The alliance has so far not announced its formula for Maharashtra’s 48 Lok Sabha seats.
When asked, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut told reporters that “such things happen” in an alliance, adding that these dynamics would not affect the MVA. “We had a sitting MP in Ramtek but the Congress candidate has even filed a nomination. So it’s fine. Alliances work like this,” he said. Ramtek MP Krupal Tumane is now part of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
However, Congress legislative party leader Balasaheb Thorat has expressed his displeasure at the Shiv Sena (UBT) list, saying the ally should have avoided contentious seats like Sangli and Mumbai, about which discussions were still ongoing.
“It is important that everyone should follow the coalition dharma. We hope that the Sena will rethink its decision,” he said in a media statement.
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Shiv Sena UBT list
The 17 seats for which the Shiv Sena (UBT) has announced its candidates are spread across three regions — Mumbai, Konkan, and Marathwada.
Of the 18 MPs that the formerly undivided Shiv Sena had in the 17th and current Lok Sabha, only five are currently with the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) while the rest have gone to Shinde’s party.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) has retained all five of these MPs — former heavy industries and public enterprises minister Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South, Omraje Nimbalkar from Dharashiv, Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Rajan Vichare from Shinde’s home ground Thane, and Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani in Marathwada.
In Maval, a stronghold of the undivided Shiv Sena currently represented by Shinde camp leader Shrirang Barne, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has decided to field former Pimpri-Chinchwad mayor Sanjog Waghere Patil. Barne had defeated Parth Pawar — the son of now-deputy CM Ajit Pawar — to win the seat in the 2019 general election.
Hadgaon MLA Nagesh Patil Ashtikar will fight from Marathwada’s Hingoli while former MP Chandrakant Khaire will once again contest in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar — formerly Aurangabad. In 2019, Khaire was beaten by All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader and current MP Imtiaz Jaleel.
Meanwhile, the party has decided to prop up former Shirdi MP Bhausaheb Wakchaure from the seat. Wakchaure, who won the seat in 2009, defected to the Congress in 2014 and eventually moved to the BJP, until he was expelled from the party in 2019.
In August 2023, he rejoined the Thackeray-led party.
The others who have been fielded are former independent MLA from Digras Sajay Deskhmukh (Yavatmal-Washim in Vidarbha), former Sinnar MLA Rajabhau Waje (Nashik), former MPs Anant Geete (Raigad) and Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai North East). While Geete lost Raigad to Sunil Tatkare of the NCP in 2019, Patil is a former NCP MP from Mumbai North East who switched to the Shiv Sena in 2019.
The seats of contention — Sangli, Mumbai South Central
Mumbai South Central is an important Sena stronghold, comprising the largely Marathi-speaking area of Dadar, where the Sena Bhawan is located, and the upscale area of Shivaji Park, another stronghold.
Here, the party has decided to prop up former Rajya Sabha MP Anil Desai, who will now make his debut in electoral politics.
In 2019, Rahul Shewale, a Dalit leader from the undivided Sena (now part of the Shinde camp) won the seat. The segment, which also comprises areas of Dharavi, has a significant Dalit presence.
Meanwhile, Sangli has been a major bone of contention between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress in this election.
While the Congress is looking to regain control of a seat it lost in 2019, the Sena (UBT) wants the seat to mark its presence in western Maharashtra, where most seats have gone to its allies.
On Wednesday, the party, which has repeatedly endorsed Chandrahar Patil for the seat, announced his name. The decision, however, has left the Congress unhappy.
“There was anti-incumbency in that seat. We have a strong local presence in Sangli, which is why we were insisting on that seat. The Sena doesn’t. This is like us claiming a seat in Konkan where we don’t have a unit,” another senior Congress leader said. In both cases, Congress leaders in Maharashtra are seeking intervention by the party high command in Delhi.
The first Congress leader, quoted earlier, said, “There is indeed a contest between the Congress and the Shiv Sena (UBT) in Sangli, it will merely be to determine who has greater strength there. The alliance will remain unaffected.”
Other seats
Another contentious seat is Mumbai North West, which the Congress’s Sanjay Nirupam has been claiming and which has gone to the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar. The decision came after a consensus between the allies.
Nirupam, a former Rajya Sabha MP and ex-president of the Mumbai Congress, called a press conference to voice his displeasure Wednesday.
“The Shiv Sena should not take an extreme stand. This will cause a huge loss to the Congress. I want to attract the attention of Congress leadership to intervene, and, if not, break the alliance to save the party. The decision to have an alliance with Shiv Sena will prove self-destructive for Congress,” he said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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