CM Shinde’s son to lead Sena’s campaign against Aaditya

The battle for Worli heats up as Shiv Sena appoints Shrikant Shinde to challenge Aaditya Thackeray, with Milind Deora as their candidate.

Mumbai: The high-voltage battle for the Worli assembly seat just got hotter, with the Shiv Sena appointing Shrikant Shinde, son of chief minister Eknath Shinde and an MLA, to lead the onslaught against Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray.

CM Shinde’s son to lead Sena’s campaign against Aaditya

The Sena virtually declared war in this high-profile constituency when it decided to nominate Milind Deora to take on Aaditya on Friday. Making this a three-cornered contest, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray, cousin of his father and Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, decided to contest the seat. The MNS has fielded Sandeep Deshpande as its nominee.

But all eyes are on Shrikant Shinde, who is personally supervising the Sena’s poll campaign here. He is being given all the resources he needs to back Deora. Shinde plans to reach out to voters across this demographically diverse constituency, from the fishing community, to residents in high-rises, and the Maharashtrian community, which comprises 60% of the voters. Party insiders say that since Deora belongs to the Marwari community, Shinde will focus on the Marwadi and Gujarati residents in Worli.

Dialling up the tempo, the Sena held two meetings in the constituency on Sunday. In the first, Shinde discussed poll strategy with a core group of workers. The second meeting was attended by local leaders of the Sena and its two coalition partners – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Shrikant Shinde told the Hindustan Times, “Our battle is against an invisible MLA who is unavailable. We held a meeting early on Sunday. People want to defeat the MLA who is unavailable. Milind Deora is MP and he knows Worli well. His father was also an MP.”

According to party insiders, the Sena had turned down the request of two local leaders who wanted to contest the Worli seat as the party was determined on fielding a candidate who could take on Aaditya. The Sena also turned down a request from the MNS to back their candidate and fielded Deora instead. Turning the battle for Worli into a matter of prestige, the Sena is doing everything it can to foil Aaditya’s electoral chances. The allies are also hoping to keep Aaditya on his toes in Worli, leaving him little time to tour the state and campaign for the Sena (UBT).

Meanwhile, Aaditya’s poll campaign will be led by two senior Sena (UBT) leaders – Sachin Ahir and Sunil Shinde, both of them MLCs. Ahir, earlier with the NCP, was also the MLA from Worli from 2004 to 2019, while Sunil Shinde was the MLA from 2014 to 2019. Since Aaditya Thackeray wanted to contest from Worli, Ahir was asked to join the Shiv Sena (UBT) and was nominated as an MLC. Shinde too made an MLC.

Sachin Ahir said, “The CM has not found a local candidate and has therefore imported Milind Deora. But we are not over-ambitious. MLC Sunil Shinde, our teams, and I are stationed in Worli. We are capable of fighting the Shiv Sena and making sure that Aaditya Thackeray wins.’’

Deora will file his nomination on Tuesday, while Aaditya filed his nomination last week.