RAMESH Latke, the late Shiv Sena MLA whose wife is now set to win the Andheri East Assembly bypoll uncontested in a show of solidarity, was a two-term MLA and three-term corporator from the area. His death in May of a heart attack, at the age of 52, while on a vacation to Dubai, had left the Shiv Sena shocked. Coming from an apolitical middle-class family, Latke got associated with the Sena while just in his 20s, and earned a standing in the area courtesy his public outreach, both in his personal capacity and as a Sena man. Seeing his work, Latke was appointed shakha pramukh of the Shiv Sena in the late 90s. In 1997, he got the party ticket to contest the BMC elections, and won then as well as the next two times. Latke also came to be known as close to Uddhav, at a time when the late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray called the shots in the party. In 2009, he contested Assembly elections from Andheri East for the first time. It was a newly formed constituency after delimitation, and Latke lost to Suresh Shetty of the Congress, though by a narrow margin of around 5,000 votes. In 2014, Latke won the same seat against the Congress's Shetty and Sunil Yadav of the BJP, with as much as 34% of the vote share. In 2019, Latke again won, this time defeating Murji Patel, the same candidate who was fielded by the BJP this time before the party decided to pull out. Patel had contested as an Independent in 2019, after rebelling from the BJP, which denied him a ticket in its alliance with the Sena. Latke won then with an even higher number of votes in 2014. Citing it as proof of his popularity, a functionary of the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) said: "Latke won in 2014 when the Sena had no alliance, and again in 2019, with a BJP rebel against him.” A party leader added: "Latke was known as a Thackeray family and party loyalist. He might have maintained a low profile but had good voter connect, and hence he went on to win the BMC as well as Assembly elections. He did immense work in his constituency and enjoyed good support there. He was vocal in the Assembly about the issues in his constituency too.”
