Amid deadlock over seats: Shinde Sena fields minister Sandipan Bhumre from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, sets up triangular contest

The undivided Shiv Sena won from Aurangabad six times since 1989, but five years ago, the party suffered a setback when its veteran leader Khaire faced an unexpected defeat at the hands of Jaleel, who won by a narrow margin of less than 4,500 votes.

So far including Bhumre, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has announced 10 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

While the Shinde Sena renominated seven sitting MPs, it dropped Krupal Tumane from Ramtek constituency, Bhawana Gawali from Washim-Yavatmal and Hemant Patil from Hingoli, fuelling discontent in the party.

The constituencies for which Sena has announced candidates are — Mumbai South Central (Rahul Shewale), Kolhapur (Sanjay Mandalik), Shirdi (Sadashiv Lokhande), Buldhana (Prataprao Jadhav), Hingoli (Hemant Patil), Maval (Shrirang Barne), Ramtek (Raju Parve), Rajshri Hemant Patil (Yavatmal-Washim) and Hatkanangale (Dhairyasheel Mane).

While the absence of Kalyan constituency from the first list, from where Shinde’s son Shrikant is the sitting MP, came as a big surprise, the party also did not announce its candidate for Thane — the home turf of Shinde.

The party has also not declared candidates for South Mumbai, and Nashik and Palghar constituencies, which the Sena had won in 2019 LS polls.

The Thane, Kalyan, Palghar, Nashik and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg seats had become the bone of contention in the ruling alliance since BJP as well as Ajit Pawar-led NCP are vying to contest from these constituencies.

While BJP is learnt to be pushing its claim to contest from Kalyan, Thane and Palghar, the third key ally of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, NCP, is keen on contesting the Nashik seat by fielding its senior leader and minister Chhagan Bhujbal.

In its first list, the Sena re-nominated sitting MP Rahul Shewale from Mumbai South Central constituency, who would be pitted against Uddhav Thackeray loyalist Anil Desai, and Sanjay Mandlik from Kolhapur against Congress candidate Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj, who is the 12th descendant of Maratha ruler Shivaji Maharaj.

The other candidates who will be pitted against the Sena UBT’s candidates are Hemant Patil from Hingoli against Nagesh Ashtikar, Sadashiv Lokhande from Shirdi against Bhausaheb Wakchaure, Prataprao Jadhav from Buldhana against Narendra Khedekar, Shrirang Barne from Maval against Sanjog Waghere Patol.

The undivided Shiv Sena under the leadership of Uddhav in an alliance with the BJP had contested 22 seats in 2019 general elections and had won 18. However, after split in the party, 13 MPs joined Shinde. Several MPs, MLA and Sena leaders have expressed their displeasure over BJP demanding to field its candidates from the Sena constituencies and some have even warned of rebellion. The BJP’s decision to induct independent MP Navneet Rana into the party and fielding her from the Amravati Lok Sabha seat has not gone down well with some ruling allies.