The Shiv Sena faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Friday fielded Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora from Mumbai’s Worli constituency for the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Deora, who left the Congress in January, will contest against Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader Aaditya Thackeray. Sandeep Deshpande of Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena is also fighting from the constituency.
“Chief Minister Eknath Shinde believes that justice for Worli & Worlikars is long overdue,” Deora said on social media. “Together, we’re paving the way forward and will share our vision soon. It’s Worli now!”
Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. The counting of votes will take place on November 23, alongside that of the Jharkhand elections.
The Worli constituency is considered a stronghold of the Shiv Sena, with the party having held the seat since 1990, except for a poll loss in 2009.
Aaditya Thackeray, who served as a state minister between December 2019 and June 2022, made his electoral debut from the constituency in 2019. He had won the seat by a margin of more than 67,000 votes.
Deora became a Rajya Sabha member in April after joining the Shinde Sena. The former Lok Sabha MP from South Mumbai served in Manmohan Singh’s Union Cabinet between 2011 and 2014.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction is part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, which also comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party group.
In the 2019 Maharashtra polls, the BJP won 105 seats in the Assembly. The undivided Shiv Sena, its ally at the time, won 56 seats.
The undivided Nationalist Congress Party won 54 seats, while its ally, the Congress, won 44 seats.
After the poll results, the Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena quit its alliance with the BJP and formed the state government along with a united Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress.
The coalition government collapsed in June 2022 when a group of Shiv Sena MLAs led by Shinde rebelled and formed a government with the BJP. This split the Shiv Sena into two factions, with one led by Uddhav Thackeray and the other by Shinde who became the chief minister.
The Uddhav Sena is part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, which also includes the Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led faction of the Nationalist Congress Party.
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