BVA chief Hitendra Thakur after filing his nomination papers.
Credit: Facebook/Hitendra Vishnu Thakur
Palghar: When the results of 14th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly came out in 2019, the Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (VBA) emerged as the fifth biggest party after the BJP, the undivided Shiv Sena, and the undivided NCP and Congress.
After the split in the Shiv Sena and the NCP and recognition of Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP), they were the seventh biggest party in the outgoing Assembly.
Then, the BVA had won three seats in the Palghar district in 2019: while Thakur, popularly known as Appa, won the Vasai seat for a record sixth time, his son Kshitij Thakur won the Nalasopara seat for the third term and their party colleague Rajesh Patil won the Boisar (ST) seat.
However, this time, when the BVA ran in eight seats for the 15th Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, it scored a duck.
In Boisar, Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Vilas Tare, who is a two-time former BVA MLA, defeated Patil.
In Vasai, Thakur was defeated by BJP’s Sneha Dube-Pandit in a triangular contest, which also involved Vijay Patil of the Congress.
In Nalasopara, Kshitij was defeated by the BJP’s Rajan Naik in a multi-corner contest which also involved Vinod More of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Sandeep Pandey of the Congress and Dhananjay Gawade of the Bacchu Kadu-led Prahar Janshakti Party.
Sneha is daughter of former independent MLA and social worker Vivek Pandit, popularly known as Vivek Bhau. She is the wife of Navin Dube, who is from the Shiv Sena.
Vivek Pandit was elected an MLA in 2009. Sensing defeat at the time, Thakur had backed out from the contest at the last minute. However, Pandit lost to Thakur in 2014.
He is the founder of Shramjeevi Sanghatana and is internationally-recognised for working for release of bonded labourers.
On the eve of polls, the Thakur father-son duo made national headlines when they alleged that BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde was distributing money in the Vasai-Nalasopara-Virar belt.
Tawde and the BJP leadership denied the charges.
The BVA has been controlling the Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation. However, now there is no general body as civic polls have not been held for the last four years.
“This is a big jolt to the Thakur family who had been controlling the Vasai-Virar belt for the last three decades,” a Vasai-based social worker said.
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Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls took place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP went up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress tried to make their mark. Maha Yuti are currently comfortably poised to win. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faced a challenge after Hemant Soren's arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP, but look set to retain power with its I.N.D.I.A. allies. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.
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