In spite of its bluster that it would give Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son a tough fight in his re-election bid from Kalyan Lok Sabha seat, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena on Wednesday fielded a relative lightweight, Vaishali Darekar-Rane, as its nominee from the seat. While the CM's son Shrikant Shinde is the current MP from Kalyan, the Shiv Sena is yet to declare his candidature owing to a tussle with the BJP over Kalyan and Thane LS seats. The move to field the two-term corporator from Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has surprised many, including political watchers who believe Shrikant Shinde is now set to have a relatively easy run. The party had earlier been planning to nominate Kedar Dighe, nephew of Anand Dighe, the mentor of Eknath Shinde, to take on his son. While the decision to nominate Vaishali has surprised everyone, party insiders said the Sena UBT has adopted the ‘David versus Goliath’ strategy fielding relative nobodies to successfully take on political bigwigs and defeating them at the electoral hustings. “As is well-known, Sena UBT has always given opportunity to ground workers and they have become big leaders. Now also from Kalyan I am fielding ordinary housewife Vaishali Darekar. Vaishali would be the next MP of Kalyan,” Uddhav said while announcing her candidature. However, the jury is still out on whether Vaishali has the heft to stand up to the Shindes. Vaishali Darekar-Rane is a two-term corporator from KDMC. She had contested and won corporation elections in 2000s and when Raj Thackeray quit the Shiv Sena and launched his own party Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Vaishali joined Raj. In 2009 general elections, Vaishali contested from Kalyan LS seat on an MNS ticket and secured over one lakh votes. She finished third and lost to Aanand Paranjape, the then undivided Shiv Sena candidate. Later Vaishali contested and won municipal corporation polls from MNS and became the opposition leader in KDMC. In 2016, she decided to rejoin the Shiv Sena and was considered close to Shrikant who had then became the MP of Kalyan. However, after the split in the party engineered by Eknath Shinde, Vaishali decided to remain loyal to Uddhav.
