The 2022 break up inside the Shiv Sena and the bitter feuding between the rival Sena factions led by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray would be the leitmotif enjoying throughout a lot of the 14 Lok Sabha seats which go to polls within the fifth and closing section of the overall election within the State.
Notwithstanding the rhetoric about who’s the “real Sena”, the result will decisively decide whether or not Mr. Shinde or Mr. Thackeray guidelines the hearts and minds of the rank-and-file Shiv Sainik, and which chief is the true legatee of late Sena founder Bal Thackeray.
Several of the Lok Sabha seats on this section, that are unfold over Mumbai metropolis, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Nashik district and components of the erstwhile Khandesh province, will witness straight contests between Mr. Shinde’s Sena and Mr. Thackeray’s Sena (UBT).
The end result of the seven constituencies in Mumbai metropolis even have essential political ramifications sooner or later, as it’ll decide which faction controls the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) – the nerve-centre of Mumbai’s politics – the place the Thackeray household has held absolute sway for twenty years.
While the BJP undeniably has a sturdy organisational construction in most of those 14 seats, they’ve been compelled to make concessions owing to Mr. Shinde driving a tough cut price. The Chief Minister, with a purpose to break the picture of him being labelled a “BJP puppet”, haggled along with his saffron ally to get key Mumbai seats in his kitty.
However, observers really feel poor candidate choice on seats like Mumbai South and Mumbai North West might badly hit the ruling Mahayuti coalition.
Also Read | With new symbols and break up entities, it’s again to the marketing campaign drafting board for events in Maharashtra
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena has fielded MLA Ravindra Waikar because the Mahayhuti’s candidate for the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha seat.
Formerly with Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Waikar defected to Mr. Shinde’s camp after feeling the warmth of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged cash laundering case. He faces the Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar, the son of incumbent MP Gajanan Kirtikar who, by the way, is with Mr. Shinde’s Sena.
The essential Mumbai South constituency – the place billionaires and skyscrapers haughtily tower over plebeian slums – sees incumbent MP, Sena (UBT) chief and Thackeray loyalist Arvind Sawant, dealing with Shinde Sena chief and MLA Yamini Jadhav. Both Ms. Jadhav and her husband Yashwant Jadhav – a giant chief within the BMC – had been below the Income Tax division’s scanner owing to discrepancies of their IT returns.
For the native BJP management, the Shinde Sena’s fielding of Mr. Waikar and Ms. Jadhav comes as a humiliation because the BJP cadre had accused them of corruption.
Also Read | Maharashtra’s warfare of factions | Sena vs Sena for 13 seats; NCP vs NCP for 2
While Mr. Sawant, looking for his third time period, earlier had the backing of the BJP’s Gujarati-speaking voters in Mumbai South, he now finds Muslim assist (notably within the Bhendi Bazaar and Masjid Bandar areas) given {that a} vital variety of minority voters have gravitated to Mr. Thackeray.
Mumbai North, thought-about a BJP citadel, has Union Minister Piyush Goyal dealing with off in opposition to Congress’s Bhushan Patil. Barring a 10-year interval when the seat was held by the Congress, the constituency has been held by the BJP since 1989, being the stronghold of veteran Mumbai BJP chief Ram Naik.
Another key contest is in North Central seat, the place the BJP has fielded high-profile lawyer Ujjwal Nikam, who was the particular public prosecutor in a few of largest terror and crime instances together with the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts and the 26/11 Mumbai assaults.
Mr. Nikam faces Mumbai Congress metropolis chief Varsha Gaikwad (the Opposition MVA’s candidate).
The break up inside the Shiv Sena can also be more likely to replicate in a break up alongside linguistic strains, with a Marathi-speaking vs Gujarati-speaking voter break up enjoying out within the Mumbai seats. Given that the BJP’s conventional vote base in Mumbai consists of north Indian voters, observers word a powerful undercurrent of resentment amongst Marathi-speaking voters in opposition to the BJP for having toppled Mr. Thackeray unceremoniously when he was CM helming the earlier MVA authorities.
Sena-BJP factional fights
Another downside for the Mahayuti is the extraordinary factional fights between the Shinde Sena and the BJP. A first-rate occasion of that is the essential Kalyan seat (in Thane district) the place incumbent MP Shrikant Shinde – son of Mr. Shinde – is looking for a hat-trick as he faces neophyte Kalyani Darekar of Sena (UBT).
While Mr. Shrikant appears to be like robust on paper, the clear and current hazard to him comes from inside as there’s large resentment in opposition to Shinde junior from the native BJP management of Thane.
The animus between the allies reached a crescendo when BJP MLA from Kalyan East, Ganpat Gaikwad shot at Shinde Sena chief Mahesh Gaikwad inside a police station in Ulhasnagar.
Furthermore, there was an awesome notion because the break up that Mr. Shinde has not been capable of broaden his affect past Thane, whereas a lot of the corporators and cadre nonetheless stay with Mr. Thackeray.
Outside Mumbai and Thane, Nashik is arguably essentially the most hotly-contested seat and one other case of discord among the many Mahayuti allies. Sena incumbent MP Hemant Godse squares off the Sena (UBT)’s Rajabhau Waje right here.
The BJP brass in Delhi was reluctant to present Mr. Godse a ticket, and wished Cabinet Minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar faction) chief Chhagan Bhujbal to contest. Frustrated by the Mahayuti’s vacillation in saying a candidate, Mr. Bhujbal had voluntarily dropped out. Yet, it stays to be seen how ardently he’ll marketing campaign for Mr. Godse.
Complicating the intra-alliance rift are the woes of onion farmers in Nashik, who’ve lengthy been upset with the Central authorities’s ban on export of onions.
The Centre’s current determination to elevate that ban has failed to chop a lot ice with farmers or merchants in Nashik as was evident throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi rally in Nashik, the place police had been compelled to detain protesting farmers forward of the occasion.
Source: www.thehindu.com
