<p>Battle lines were drawn for the crucial Andheri East bye-election to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the government involving the BJP and rebel Shiv Sena faction engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball political conflict.</p>.<p>While the Shiv Sena (<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/chhagan-bhujbal-would-have-become-cm-had-he-not-left-sena-says-uddhav-thackeray-1153325.html" target="_blank">Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray</a>) has fielded Rutuja Latke, the BJP has put up Murji Patel, who also have the backing of the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. </p>.<p>The two candidates will be filing their nomination papers today, which is the last day for submitting papers. </p>.<p>The election to this seat of Mumbai has been necessitated following the death of two-time MLA of Shiv Sena, Ramesh Latke, who passed away following a heart attack on 11 May while he was on a trip to Dubai. </p>.<p>In the 2019 polls, the late Latke had defeated Patel, who had contested as an Independent, a rebel BJP candidate. Latke consolidated 62,773 votes while Patel was at the 2nd position with 45,808 votes and Amin Jagdish Kutty of the Congress was No. 3 with 27,951 votes. Before 2014 and 2019, the seat was represented by Suresh Shetty of the Congress. </p>.<p>It is practically a fight between the MVA and BJP, which will have the support of the Shinde-faction. </p>.<p>The Andheri East seat falls under the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, which is now represented by veteran politician Gajanan Kirtikar, who is part of Thackeray-group.</p>
<p>Battle lines were drawn for the crucial Andheri East bye-election to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly with the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the government involving the BJP and rebel Shiv Sena faction engaged in an eyeball-to-eyeball political conflict.</p>.<p>While the Shiv Sena (<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/chhagan-bhujbal-would-have-become-cm-had-he-not-left-sena-says-uddhav-thackeray-1153325.html" target="_blank">Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray</a>) has fielded Rutuja Latke, the BJP has put up Murji Patel, who also have the backing of the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. </p>.<p>The two candidates will be filing their nomination papers today, which is the last day for submitting papers. </p>.<p>The election to this seat of Mumbai has been necessitated following the death of two-time MLA of Shiv Sena, Ramesh Latke, who passed away following a heart attack on 11 May while he was on a trip to Dubai. </p>.<p>In the 2019 polls, the late Latke had defeated Patel, who had contested as an Independent, a rebel BJP candidate. Latke consolidated 62,773 votes while Patel was at the 2nd position with 45,808 votes and Amin Jagdish Kutty of the Congress was No. 3 with 27,951 votes. Before 2014 and 2019, the seat was represented by Suresh Shetty of the Congress. </p>.<p>It is practically a fight between the MVA and BJP, which will have the support of the Shinde-faction. </p>.<p>The Andheri East seat falls under the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency, which is now represented by veteran politician Gajanan Kirtikar, who is part of Thackeray-group.</p>