Mumbai: The Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) is leading in at least three of the four seats it contested in Mumbai, considered to be the party’s home turf and its strongest fort. The tends indicate that the Thackeray brand still carries a strong appeal in the undivided Shiv Sena’s stronghold. Mumbai has six parliamentary seats.
The party is part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) along with the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar). The Shiv Sena (UBT) contested four of Mumbai’s six seats — Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North West, and Mumbai North East — while the Congress fought Mumbai North and Mumbai North Central.
On the other side was the Mahayuti, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The BJP had contested three seats—Mumbai North, Mumbai North East, and Mumbai North Central—while the Shinde-led Shiv Sena contested the other three, namely Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, and Mumbai North West.
In both 2014 and 2019, the alliance of the BJP and the undivided Shiv Sena won all six seats in Mumbai.
Sena vs Sena
There was a direct tussle between the two Shiv Senas on three of the six seats — Mumbai South, Mumbai North West, and Mumbai South Central.
As of 1 PM, Shiv Sena (UBT) was leading in all these three seats against the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
In Mumbai South, the incumbent Arvind Sawant from the Shiv Sena (UBT) was leading against Shinde-led Sena’s Yamini Jadhav by over 60,000 votes.
In Mumbai South Central, sitting MP Rahul Shewale, who is with the Shinde faction, was trailing against Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Anil Desai, Uddhav Thackeray’s close aide, by nearly 40,000 votes.
Mumbai North West is seeing a neck and neck contest between Shinde-led Sena’s Ravindra Waikar — who had jumped from Shiv Sena (UBT) to the other faction in March, following an Enforcement Directorate probe against him — and the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Amol Kirtikar. Kirtikar is the son of incumbent MP Gajanan Kirtikar, who is with the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
Mumbai has been the undivided Shiv Sena’s strongest bastion. Bal Thackeray founded the party in the city in 1966 on his sons-of-the-soil ideology, belligerently agitating against jobs in the city going to migrants. The undivided Shiv Sena ruled the Mumbai civic body for 25 years until March 2022, when the term of the general body expired. Fresh elections are yet to be held.
BJP’s performance in Mumbai
The BJP is leading in at least two of the three seats it contested in Mumbai.
As of 1 PM, in Mumbai North, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was leading with a massive margin of more than 1,46,000 votes against Congress’ Bhushan Patil.
In Mumbai North Central, retired public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam also had a strong lead of more than 58,000 votes against Congress’ Varsha Gaikwad, the Mumbai Congress president.
In Mumbai North East, the BJP’s Mihir Kotecha was trailing behind Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Dina Patil by a margin of 23,000 votes, as of 1 PM.
The BJP, whose footprint has grown in Mumbai over the years, replaced all three of its incumbent MPs with new candidates, causing some internal strife. The party dropped two-time MPs Poonam Mahajan, daughter of the late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan, and Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North Central and Mumbai North, respectively. In Mumbai North East, it dropped incumbent Manoj Kotak.
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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