Palghar: In a surprising turn of events, Palghar Shiv Sena MP Dr Rajendra Gavit rejoined the BJP in presence of deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha seat is from where the rift between the BJP and the Uddhav Thackeray-led unified Shiv Sena started around six years ago.
The 56-year-old leader started his political career with the Congress and was the Tribal Affairs Minister in the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government, which was in power from 1999-2014.
The contest in Palghar (ST) is going to be a triangular fight.
The three key candidates are Dr Hemant Savara of BJP, Bharti Kamdi of Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Rajesh Patil of Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (VBA).
Dr Gavit's move comes days after the BJP got Palghar seat during the seat-sharing arrangement with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. “I will work for Maha Yuti,” Dr Gavit said.
The Palghar-ST seat was carved out after delimitation in 2009 while Palghar district was carved out of Thane district on 1 August, 2014.
As of now, Dr Gavit represents the seat, which he won in 2019 on a unified Shiv Sena ticket.
However, during the June-July 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, he switched loyalties to the Shinde.
In 2009, the Palghar seat was won by Baliram Jadhav of Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi defeating Chintaman Vanaga of the BJP.
In 2014, during the Narendra Modi wave, Jadhav was defeated by Vanaga.
Unfortunately, on 30 January 2018, Vanaga died leading to bye-elections.
After this a tussle between then Shiv Sena and BJP started and both fielded candidates. The Shiv Sena fielded Shrinivas Vanaga, the son of Chintaman Vanaga while BJP fielded Rajendra Gavit, a former Congressman and ex-minister, leading to a multi-pronged contest which also involved BVA’s Jadhav, CPI(M)’s Kiran Gahala and Congress’ Damodar Shingada. Gavit won the polls.
In the 2019 polls, the Shiv Sena had its way and ensured that BJP won the seat and accordingly Gavit joined the then Uddhav Thackeray-led party and won the seat. Shrinivas Vanaga became the MLA from Palghar in the subsequent Vidhan Sabha polls.