Thane: As Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son attempts a hat-trick in Kalyan in the Thane district adjoining Mumbai - it's surely not an easy task under the changed political dynamics.
It's a battle between orthopaedic surgeon-turned-politician Dr Shrikant Shinde, the two-time sitting Kalyan MP and Vaishali Darekar-Rane, a two-term ex-Corporator of Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC).
Shrikant is the son of Shinde, who has been anointed as the chief leader of Shiv Sena after rebellion against Uddhav Thackeray - and the electoral battle is being closely watched.
With Shinde’s influence and the Narendra Modi-wave Shrikant has easily sailed through in 2014 and 2019.
To counter Shinde’s Shiv Sena, Uddhav Thackeray has taken a strategic move and deployed Vaishali from the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Over decades, Vaishali had opposed the Shinde-family politics.
In 2000, she was elected to the KDMC for the first time from the undivided Shiv Sena and from the Raj Thackeray-led MNS in 2010, when she was also the Leader of Opposition. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she rejoined Thackeray.
After the June-July 2022 split, most of the Shiv Sainiks went with Shinde, however, she chose to remain with Thackeray and continue to take on the Shindes.
In 2009, she had contested the Lok Sabha polls from MNS, when Shiv Sena’s Anand Paranjpe won defeating late Vasant Davkhare, a close aide of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, however, Vaishali was No 3 getting over a lakh votes. Paranjpe later joined NCP and is now with Ajit Pawar.
“It is not an easy election. The perception that the election is one-sided favouring the Shindes is completely wrong. It's sure to be a nail-biting finish,” said a Thane veteran, who has seen the Shiv Sena politics in the belt right from the days of Balasaheb Thackeray to Anand Dighe, the firebrand leader.
The elections are being held in the backdrop of the sensational shooting incident of 2 February when BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad opened fire inside the Hill Line police station in Ulhasnagar and injured Mahesh Gaikwad and Rahul Patil, both of whom are with Shinde-Shiv Sena. “The Chief Minister is trying to establish a kingdom of criminals in Maharashtra,” Gaikwad had said during his arrest, adding that wherever he is doing work in his area, Shrikant is putting up banners and hoardings claiming credit.
The incident had embarrassed Shiv Sena’s Maha Yuti (NDA) partners - BJP as well as NCP even as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (I.N.D.I.A) questioned the law and order situation.
The six Vidhan Sabha seats are - Ambernath (SC), Ulhasnagar, Kalyan East, Dombivli, Kalyan Rural, Mumbra-Kalwa. Three are in control of BJP, one each by MNS, Shiv Sena and NCP (SP).
Thackeray, his son and Worli MLA Aaditya Thackeray, NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad are aggressively campaigning for Vaishali.
The Kalyan-Dombivli twin city comes under the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Kalyan Junction is a big station under Central Railway.