Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde.
Credit: PTI Photo
THANE: The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena managed to win just 50 per cent of seats that it contested in Maharashtra, however, the Chief Minister managed to successfully defend his bastion of Thane in the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR).
The Thane district has three seats - Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi.
The Shiv Sena contested from 15 constituencies of which it won just seven including two in Thane district.
The Bhiwandi seat was won by Suresh Mhatre alias Balya Mama of Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) defeating BJP’s Kapil Patil, Minister of State for Panchayati Raj in the Narendra Modi-government.
Shinde’s son Dr Shrikant Shinde, the two-time sitting Kalyan MP, reached a hat-trick by defeating Vaishali Darekar-Rane, who was pitted by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena.
In Thane, Shinde’s close aide and Shiv Sena spokesperson Naresh Mhaske defeated Rajan Vichare, a close aide of the Thackeray family and the two-time sitting MP.
Incidentally, both Vichare and Mhaske were former Mayors of Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).
Thane has special importance for the Balasaheb Thackeray-founded party and the defeat in the twin seats of Thane and Kalyan is a blow to Uddhav Thackeray.
Balasaheb founded the Shiv Sena on 19 June 1966 in Mumbai for the welfare of the Marathi-manoos. Balasaheb addressed the first Dussehra rally from the historic Shivaji Park 30 October 1966 - marking the spread across Maharashtra.
The first breakthrough, however, came in a year’s time in 1967 in Thane when it won seats in the Thane Municipal Council.
Thane had a special relationship with Balasaheb, who also championed the Hindutva-movement.
Beyond the Thackeray family and its league of Mumbai leaders like Manohar Joshi, Sudhir Joshi, Pramod Navalkar, Chhagan Bhujbal and Narayan Rane, the big leader who dominated the Palghar-Thane-Raigad belt was late ‘Dharmaveer’ Anand Dighe.
In fact, Shinde is a protege of Dighe.
However, the electoral battle - 58 years after the party’s formation and two years after the split - in the Thane seat witnessed a direct contest between Thackeray, the son of Balasaheb and Shinde, the protege of Dighe.
To consolidate the position, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also addressed a rally in Thane.
Shinde also pursued Maharashtra Navnirman Sena founder-President Raj Thackeray to address a rally in the district while BJP’s strategist and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis did several rounds.
Multiple factors worked in favour of Shinde in Thane.
Shinde is a four-time MLA from Kopri-Pachpakhadi in Thane City.
Thane comes under the Mumbai metropolitan region (MMR) and borders the neighbouring Palghar and Raigad districts of the coastal Konkan region.