Next round of defections? Shinde camp in touch with Sena MP

Kirtikar is said to have visited Shinde at his official residence ‘Varsha’ on Monday for Ganapati darshan

Mumbai The Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena is likely to wean away two of its important leaders from the Uddhav Thackeray camp. Sources said that the Shinde camp is in touch with Lok Sabha MP Gajanan Kirtikar and former corporator Ameya Ghole, who is close to Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray.

Gajanan Kirtikar (Hindustan Times)

Kirtikar is said to have visited Shinde at his official residence ‘Varsha’ on Monday for Ganapati darshan. Earlier, Shinde had called on Kirtikar at his Goregaon residence when he was recuperating after a surgery. Shinde also visited Ghole’s Ganesh mandal in Wadala on Monday night.

A senior leader from the Shinde camp claimed that the two were likely to join them after the Ganesh festival. However, neither Kirtikar nor Ghole could be contacted for comments.

However, sources close to Amol Kirtikar, who is Kirtikar’s son and a Sena functionary, said that they were not keen on leaving the party at this juncture.

Sources said that Kirtikar was present at a meeting of Shiv Sena functionaries convened by Uddhav Thackeray at his residence ‘Matoshree’ in Bandra East on Tuesday.

Kirtikar, who is a four-term MLA and former minister of state for home, has been elected to the Lok Sabha twice from Mumbai North West. Kirtikar is reported to be upset over being sidelined in the party. In 2019, Arvind Sawant, the party MP from South Mumbai, was made the union heavy industries minister in the Narendra Modi government for a brief while.

Kirtikar is also the chief of the Sthaniya Lokadhikar Hakka Samiti (SLHS), the Shiv Sena’s union for white-collar workers. Set up in 1968, the SLHS played an important part in implementing the Sena’s ‘jobs for sons of soil’ pitch in banks, insurance companies, financial sector institutions and other government, semi-government and private sector companies. Kirtikar’s defection may also lead to a chunk of SLHS functionaries switching loyalties to Shinde. Ghole, a first-term corporator in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is part of the Yuva Sena’s core group. He was also the chairman of the BMC’s health committee.

Shinde has already weaned away 12 of the 19 Lok Sabha MPs of the Shiv Sena.