Mumbai: The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has trounced rival Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray in 36 assembly seats in Maharashtra, putting to rest the debate over which is the real party founded by late Bal Thackeray.
Shinde’s Sena, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, won 57 of the 81 seats it contested in the state polls, the results of which were announced Saturday.
The Sena (UBT), a partner in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), managed to bag only 20 despite fielding 95 candidates. In 14 seats, it defeated Shiv Sena candidates.
In one of his biggest political gambles, Shinde rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray’s leadership in June 2022 and aligned with the BJP along with his backers to become the chief minister. The move split the Sena, led to the collapse of the Thackeray-led MVA government and sparked almost daily bickerings between the two factions.
Subsequently, Shinde got the party name and its ‘bow-and-arrow’ symbol from the Election Commission.
Shinde had retained most of the sitting MLAs, who chose to be with him when he led the rebellion two years ago. They delivered for him Saturday when votes for the state polls were counted.
Minister Abdul Sattar defeated Suresh Bankar in Sillod. Pradeep Jaiswal, who fought against Balasaheb Thorat, was the winner in Aurangabad Central.
Sanjay Shirsat beat Raju Shinde in Aurangabad West seat, while Vilas Bhumre came on top in his fight against Dattatrey Gorde in Paithan.
Chandrakant Sonawane, who replaced his wife and sitting MLA Lata Sonawane, defeated Prabhakar Sonawane of Sena (UBT) in Chopda.
Sanjana Jadhav trounced Udaysing Rajput in Kannada, while Sanjay Bangar emerged victorious against Santosh Tarfe in Kalamnuri.
Ganesh Dhatrak was bested by Suhas Kande in Nandgaon. Dada Bhuse defeated Prashant Hiray in Malegaon outer.
In the tribal-dominated Palghar constituency, Rajendra Gavit beat Jayendra Dubla.
In Bhiwandi rural of Thane district, where CM Shinde holds sway, Shantaram More of his party defeated Uddhav’s man Mahadev Ghatal.
Vishwas Bhoir vanquished Sachin Basare in Kalyan West, while Pratap Sarnaik defeated Naresh Manera in Ovla Majiwada in Thane city.
Shinde himself registered a massive victory in his Kopri-Pachpakhadi seat, defeating Kedar Dighe by a margin of 1.2 lakh votes.
Prakash Surve trounced Udesh Patekar In Magathane, while Ashok Patil vanquished Ramesh Korgaonkar in Bhandup West.
Murji Patel, who had earlier lost to Rutuja Latke in Andheri East, bounced back as the winner. Tukaram Kate defeated Prakash Phaterpekar in Chembur. Both Latke and Phatarpekar were sitting MLAs who had stayed with Uddhav.
Bharat Gogawale got more votes than Snehal Jagtap to bag the Mahad seat, while Shambhuraj Desai trounced Bhanupratap Kadam in Patan.
In coastal Dapoli, Yogesh Kadam defeated Sanjay Kadam.
Minister Uday Samant won against Bal Mane in Ratnagiri, while Kiran Samant beat sitting MLA Rajan Salvi in Rajapur.
Nilesh Rane, who switched from BJP to Shiv Sena before the polls, defeated sitting MLA Vaibhav Naik in Kudal. In Sawantwadi near Goa, Deepak Kesarkar got the best of Rajan Teli. Prakash Abitkar defeated KP Patil in Radhanagari.
The Sena (UBT) won against the Shiv Sena in 14 seats.
In Mehkar, Rambhau Kharat defeated Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Bhaskar Raymulkar, while Nitin Bhikanrao Deshmukh was the winner in Balapur. Shiv Sena’s Bhagwan Siraskar came third.
Sunil Raut defeated Suvarna Karanje in Vikhroli and his Sena (UBT) colleague Anant Nar was the winner in Jogeshwari West after a face-off with Manisha Waikar.
Sunil Prabhu defeated Sanjay Nirupam in Dindoshi. Mahesh Sawant beat Sada Sarvankar in Mahim.
Uddhav Thackeray’s son and former state minister Aaditya Thackeray retained his Worli seat by defeating Milind Deora, who recently joined the Shiv Sena from Congress.
Manoj Jamsutkar defeated Yamini Jadhav in Byculla.
The vote share of the Sena (UBT) was 9.96 per cent compared to Shiv Sena’s 12.38 per cent.
The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi’s dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 46 seats.
The Election Commission announced that the BJP has won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena won 57, while the NCP got 41 seats.
In the MVA, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidates won 10 seats, Congress won 16, while Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) won 20 seats.