HOW UDDHAV THACKERAY'S SHIV SENA GOT A FRESH BOOST IN RUN-UP TO MAHARASHTRA ASSEMBLY POLLS
The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) has scored a major morale-booster in the run-up to the Maharashtra assembly elections by winning two legislative council seats in Mumbai. Party nominee and former minister Anil Parab won the Mumbai Graduates constituency seat while J.M. Abhyankar wrested the Mumbai Teachers constituency seat.
The Shiv Sena (UBT)'s victories handed the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) two of the four seats that went to polls; the ruling Mahayuti (grand alliance) retained two seats.
The Mumbai Graduates constituency has been a Shiv Sena stronghold for almost four decades, and represented in the upper house of the legislature by party veteran and former minister Pramod Navalkar for three terms and former health minister Dr Deepak Sawant for two terms. Vilas Potnis of the Shiv Sena (UBT) is now the MLC from the seat.
Navalkar, who was known for his alleged 'moral policing' as the minister of culture in the erstwhile Shiv Sena-BJP regime (1995-99), won the seat three times in a row since 1988. In 2006, the veteran Shiv Sainik bowed out of the race, and was replaced with Dr Sawant for two terms. In 2018, Sawant, who had fallen foul of the Shiv Sena leadership, was replaced by Potnis, a Sthaniya Lokadhikar Hakka Samiti (SLHS) veteran and party organiser in north Mumbai. Sawant is now with the rival faction of the Shiv Sena led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.
Parab, a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) president Uddhav Thackeray, is a three-term MLC. His term is due to expire in July and the party does not have the numbers to get him elected from the lower house. He was hence nominated from the Mumbai Graduates constituency.
Parab defeated the BJP's Kiran Shelar, a journalist and editor of the Mumbai edition of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mouthpiece Tarun Bharat. He was seen as the pick of deputy chief minister and home minister Devendra Fadnavis and the Sangh Parivar. The BJP was keen to wrest the seat from the Shiv Sena (UBT), but Parab secured 44,784 votes of the 67,644 votes cast, compared to 18,772 for Shelar.
Abhyankar, a close aide of former industries minister and Thackeray associate Subhash Desai, defeated Subhash More of Shikshak Bharti. The seat was represented for three terms by former journalist Kapil Patil, who had opted out of the contest and nominated More instead. Patil, who heads the Samajwadi Ganarajya Party, had supported the MVA in the Lok Sabha elections. Shivajirao Nalawade of the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Independent Shivaji Shendge were also in the fray.
"This is a morale-booster for us," said a senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, adding that while their victory in the Mumbai Graduates seat was on expected lines, the margin was heartening. Similarly, Abhyankar's victory had come at a time when the MVA won four of the six Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai.
However, there was some relief for the Mahayuti with Niranjan Davkhare of the BJP retaining his seat for a third term against Ramesh Keer of the Congress. In Nashik, independent MLC Kishor Darade, who had joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, staved off a challenge from Independent Vivek Kolhe and Sandeep Gulve of the Shiv Sena (UBT). Gulve, who was earlier with the Congress and is associated with the Maratha Vidya Prasarak Mandal, an influential educational institution in north Maharashtra, trailed at number three while Kolhe was the runner-up. Mahendra Bhavsar of the NCP was also in the fray.
2024-07-04T13:05:15Z dg43tfdfdgfd