Shiv Sena (UBT) releases list of 17 candidates for Lok Sabha polls

The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday released its first list of 17 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls including four out of the six seats in Mumbai.

The party released its first list of candidates two days after Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray had a meeting with NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) supremo Sharad Pawar at Matoshree, the Thackeray family residence. The Sena (UBT) announced candidates for Raigad (Anant Geete), Ratnagiri (Vinayak Raut), Thane (Rajan Vichare), Parbhani (Sanjay Jadhav), Buldhana (Narendra Khedekar), Yavatmal-Washim (Sanjay Deshmukh), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Chandrakant Khaire), Shirdi (Bhausaheb Wakchaure), South Mumbai (Arvind Sawant), North West Mumbai (Amol Kirtikar), North East Mumbai (Sanjay Dina Patil), Sangli (Chandrahar Patil) and Maval (Sanjog Waghere-Patil) seats. Interestingly of these the Sangli and Mumbai South Central where the Sena (UBT) has fielded Anil Desai were disputed with the Congress also laying claim to these seats. The Sena (UBT) named Nagesh Patil-Ashtikar from Hingoli, Omraje Nimbalkar from Dharashiv (Osmanabad) and Rajabhau Waje from Nashik.

In Sangli where the Sena (UBT) has fielded wrestler Chandrahar Patil, while Vishal Patil's name was announced by state Congress president Nana Patole for the Sangli seat. Vishal Patil is a descendent of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasantdada Patil. Similarly the Congress was also keen to contest the Mumbai South Central seat for which the Sena (UBT) has given the ticket to Anil Desai. From the Congress, city Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad was an aspirant from the seat which was represented by her late father Eknath Gaikwad in 2009. With the announcement, the Congress is now left with only two seats in Mumbai and if the Sena (UBT) fields Vinod Ghosalkar from Mumbai North Central, the Congress will be left with only one seat Mumbai North Central in the city.

The Sena (UBT) has picked party veteran and former MP Chandrakant Khaire over its opposition leader in the Legislative Council Ambadas Danve from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

In Sangli, in 2019, the BJP’s Sanjaykaka Patil defeated Vishal Patil who fought on a Swabhimani Paksha ticket. Sanjaykaka won by over 1.60 lakh votes. Sanjaykaka polled just over 5 lakh votes. In 2019 the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) candidate Gopichand Padalkar had polled just over 3 lakh votes.

Cracks have developed in MVA comprising the seat-sharing formula. While the dispute over most seats had been resolved, the row over Sangli and Bhiwandi had taken an unexpected turn with Congress withdrawing from the decision-making process for the two seats. A Congress leader had said if their demand was not accepted, its candidates for both the seats will contest as independents.

The Congress leader said even though UBT’s presence in Sangli is negligible, it unilaterally announced the candidature of wrestler Chandrahar Patil while NCP is insisting on Bhiwandi where NCP does not have a strong candidate.

While Congress had proposed to field Vishal Patil from Sangli it is batting for Dayanand Chorge from Bhiwandi.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, Location Guesser and Mini Crossword.