Loyalists, Heavyweights: Uddhav's Carefully Crafted 1st List Has Congress Fuming

While the Shiv Sena UBT's first list exposed the rift with the Congress again, 5 key aspects to the names chosen.

With a little over 20 days left for the first phase of the elections, the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) (SSUBT) became the first party from the Opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance in Maharashtra to declare its first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state.

The party on Wednesday, 27 March, declared a list of 17 candidates, including four of the six Lok Sabha seats from Mumbai.

While the party awarded all five of the 18 Lok Sabha seats to the sitting MPs that stuck by Uddhav Thackeray after the party split, it has also fielded a few first-timers and several heavyweights.

The declaration of the list could have been seen as the first list of the MVA by extension but the party declaring candidates on three seats that were still reportedly under discussion have left the Congress fuming.

Here are five key aspects of the seats and the candidates fielded by the SSUBT:

5 Loyal MPs Awarded

Five of the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the united Shiv Sena that stuck with Thackeray after CM Eknath Shinde split the party in 2022 have been retained as candidates.

The party has fielded Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South, Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani, Rajan Vichare from Thane, Om Rajenimbalkar from Dharashiv, and Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg.

While the NDA is yet to declare candidates on these seats, Sawant's Mumbai South seat and Vichare's Thane seat will be some of the most high-octane battles considering the Sena's traditional clout in both regions.

3 Heavyweights Fielded on Key Seats

Other than loyal MPs, the SSUBT has fielded three heavyweights:

Anil Deshmukh from Mumbai South Central: Thackeray's 'backroom man', close confidante, and three-time Rajya Sabha MP, Deshmukh's maiden Lok Sabha contest may see a direct Sena vs Sena battle if sitting Shiv Sena (Shinde) MP Rahul Shewale is fielded again. The seat has been a Sena bastion since the 1980s when the Congress lost dominance over it.

Anant Geete from Raigad: A six time-Lok Sabha MP and a union minister in both Atal Bihari Vajpayee (2002-2004) and Narendra Modi cabinets (2014-2019), Geete has previously held the seat in 2009 and 2014. Geete will be in a direct contest with Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) leader and its Maharashtra unit chief Sunil Tatkare who bagged the seat in 2019 with a margin of over 31,000 votes over Geete.

Chandrakant Khaire from Sambhaji Nagar (formerly Aurangabad): One of the tallest Sena leaders in Marathwada, Khaire held the seat for four consecutive terms from 1999-2019, till he lost it to AIMIM's Imtiyaz Jaleel by a very close margin of 4,492 votes.

2 Turncoats Get Tickets

Sanjog Waghere Patil from Maval: Former chief of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP's Pimpri-Chinchwad unit and former mayor, Patil joined the SSUBT in December last year and had been batting to contest from Maval ever since. This seat, too, may see a Sena vs Sena battle with stitting MP from the Shinde faction Shrirang Barne set to contest for the third time, though an official announcement is pending. The Sena has held this seat since 2009.

Bhausaheb Wakchaure from Shirdi: A Shiv Sena Lok Sabha MP from Shirdi from 2009-15, Wakchaure has been in the Sena, Congress, and the BJP in the past decade, before returning to SSUBT in August last year. The seat has been a Sena stronghold with Sadashiv Lokhande (Shinde faction) representing it since 2014.

4 Fresh Faces Launched

Known to be a staunch Thackeray loyalist, Narendra Khedekar will contest his maiden Lok Sabha contest from Bukdhana. Sanjay Deshmukh, a two-time independent MLA from Digras in 1999 and 2004, is being fielded from Yavatmal-Washim where the Sena-BJP enjoys undisputed clout.

Former Sena MLAs Nagesh Patil Ashtikar and Rajabhau Waze, too, will fight their maiden Lok Sabha battles from Hingoli and Nanded respectively.

Conflict With Congress on 3 Seats

The Congress, meanwhile, strongly protested against the list, pointing out that some seats like Sangli, Buldhana, and Mumbai North West were still under discussion.

The first to react was Sanjay Nirupam over fielding Amol Kirtikar, son of former cabinet minister and one of the seniormost Shiv Sena leaders Gajanan Kirtikar, from the Mumbai North West seat.

"They want to contest five seats in Mumbai and will leave one for the Congress as charity. This decision is to bury the Congress in Mumbai. I condemn this decision. And in my condemnation, I mean both Shiv Sena (SSUBT) and the Congress leaderships who were a part of the negotiations," Nirpupam told the media on Wednesday.

Amol is accused in a khichdi contract scam and is being probed by the Enforcement Directorate for the same. Nirupam went on to say that he will not work for a khichadi chor during the elections and that Thackeray did not follow 'alliance dharma' by unilaterally declaring candidates.

The contention between Thackeray and the Congress over the seat had been brewing for a while since SSUBT had openly declared Amol's candidature from the seat a few weeks ago.

Senior Maharashtra Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat said that Thackeray should not have declared candidature from the Sangli and Dharashiv seats either, both of which the Congress was keen on contesting.

"Both Sena and Prakash Ambedkar must rethink on its list of candidates. It is the need of the hour to go forward as an alliance. Each party muct follow alliance dharma. Unfortunately, our friends did not do so. The Shiv Sena declared its list. But declaring seats of Sangli and Dharashiv was not appropriate because the talks are still underway," Thorat said.

Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, too, condemnded the declaration of candidates on the two seats.

"We would have been happy if they had follow the alliance dharma. The decions have to be taken by the three parties together. Taking unilateral decisions while the talks are still underway dents the alliance. Uddhav Thackeray must rethink this," Wadettiwar said.

While the Congress had never lost the Sangli seat till the BJP bagged it in 2014 and was considered to have better chances there than the Sena, the Congress has not won the Dharashiv seat (formerly Osmanabad) since the early 1990s.