How Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant became Sena's second most important leader
Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, after the Foundation Day function, saw reason to announce that all the allies were with Shrikant
MUMBAI: On Saturday afternoon, right after the BJP Foundation Day function at Nagpur, BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis made an announcement: that Shrikant Shinde, sitting Shiv Sena MP from Kalyan and CM Eknath Shinde’s son would contest the seat again in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. The announcement came even as the BJP and the Shiv Sena continue to wage war over at least five Lok Sabha constituencies.

Shrikant is perhaps the second most important leader in the Shiv Sena, and the ruling alliance had been at the receiving end of digs from the opposition for withholding the announcement of his candidature for so long, given that other “sure” candidates had been announced long before. The reference was to the fact that the Kalyan seat was one which, apart from Thane, Palghar, Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Aurangabad, Mumbai South and Mumbai North-West, the alliance partners were unable to agree on even after a series of marathon meetings at the state and national level.
It was perhaps because of this that Fadnavis, after the Foundation Day function, saw reason to announce that all the allies were with Shrikant. “There is no opposition to him. We all will work for him and get him elected with a much larger margin than last time,” he told reporters.
Contrary to the united face put up by the ruling alliance, however, the ground reality is quite different. BJP workers and supporters of BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, who is in jail for firing at Shiv Sena worker Mahesh Gaikwad in February, passed a resolution on Friday to not campaign for Shrikant. In the evening, they took to sloganeering and opposed Shrikant’s candidature.
Reacting to this, Shrikant on Saturday declared that he did not want to comment on the subject. “Ganpat Gaikwad and his supporters want to vitiate the atmosphere,” he said. “Even the BJP is not supporting his crime of firing at our worker in a police station.” Shrikant added that the immediate task before all ruling alliance workers should be to get all Mahayuti candidates elected.
Shrikant, 37, is a doctor who acquired an MBBS degree from D Y Patil Medical College in 2011. He secured a Masters in orthopaedic surgery from the same college in 2015. The only son of CM Shinde, who lost his two other children in a boating accident, he was the unwavering focus of his father who gave him the best education and an initiation into politics. Shrikant got a Lok Sabha ticket even before he could complete his MS, and appeared for his exams after becoming an MP. He was repeated in the 2019 polls and was the only Shiv Sena candidate for whom PM Narendra Modi held a public meeting.
Some BJP leaders in Kalyan and Thane hold Shrikant responsible for the growing bitterness between the BJP-Sena and their leaders. “Ganpat Gaikwad, in his interview after the firing incident, had blamed CM Shinde and Shrikant for acting high-handedly in Thane and Kalyan,” said an NCP leader from Thane. “Shrikant has been granted huge funds for his constituency in the last 10 years for infrastructure projects by both the central government and MMRDA, which is headed by the CM. But in the course of this, he faced allegations by other elected representatives of taking credit for the work done by them and of diverting funds from their constituencies.”
A leader close to Shrikant said that apart from the infra push and other development works in Kalyan, the MP had also done a lot of community connect with locals. “Recently, he organised a festival at the Ambernath Shiv temple, which thousands of people attended,” he said. “Another programme, Bramhotsavam, saw thousands of members of the South Indian community turning up.” During the Covid pandemic, the Shindes also erected several temporary Covid facilities and financed the medical expenses of many people through the Shrikant Shinde Foundation.
The rift between the BJP and Sena in Thane and Kalyan has surfaced multiple times since the split in the Shiv Sena in June 2022. Local BJP leaders had alleged that the framing of a Dombivli leader in an allegedly fake molestation case in June 2023 was the handiwork of a Thane Sena leader. MLA Ganpat Gaikwad’s firing at Mahesh Gaikwad was another conspicuous crack—even as Shrikant and CM Shinde visited the injured Mahesh in hospital, BJP leaders, even at the state level, stood by Ganpat, who was jailed along with four others.
The incident in Kalyan resulted in the rift between the state leaders of the two parties widening. Fadnavis, as home minister, came under fire for the free flow of weapon licences in Maharashtra. “He was upset with the rampant issuance of licences by district authorities in Thane and other districts on political recommendations,” said a Mantralaya official. “Fadnavis had also expressed his dismay over the interference in the police force, which was rampant in transfers of senior police officers. This led to uneasiness between Shinde and Fadnavis and prevailed for quite some time.”
This was not a one-off feud. In June 2023, the Shinde-led Sena had issued an advertisement in newspapers, comparing Shinde with PM Narendra Modi in popularity and cited a survey report that said that 26.1% people in Maharashtra preferred Shinde to Fadnavis as the next CM. The advertisement issued by Shinde’s “well-wisher”, reportedly a top leader close to the CM, led to friction between the BJP and Sena. After BJP leaders expressed their ire, Shinde held a meeting with Fadnavis in a bid to pacify him and a conciliatory advertisement was promptly issued the next day, with photographs of several BJP leaders, including Fadnavis.
The feud between the two ruling allies surfaced afresh during seat-sharing talks. “Both the smaller constituents—the Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP—were unhappy with the initial approach of the BJP, which wanted to retain a maximum of 48 seats,” said a leader from the Shinde camp. “The Ajit faction got six seats despite having only one sitting MP, but we are finding it difficult to retain even our existing seats. We had to drop at least five sitting MPs and are not sure if we can get our 13 existing seats. The fight is still on.”
Thane BJP leaders, on their part, believe that they had always been made to sacrifice, be it during the days of the undivided Sena or with the Shinde Sena, on Thane and other seats. “This time too, our leadership may concede Thane or Palghar to get Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, where we have no political strength,” said a BJP leader from Thane. “We have been telling the leadership to concede Palghar to the Shinde camp, as it is held by their sitting MP. Shinde is hellbent on Thane, saying it is his citadel and hometown, but they should realise that they have lost ground after the Shiv Sena split.”
The leader said the infighting between the local cadres of the two parties in Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and even Konkan was likely to continue during the campaign as well. “We have been competitors of each other in these regions in the absence of other major parties,” he said. “BJP workers have been working hard for years to erect a base in Thane and MMR, but we have not been given seats and are thus disillusioned.”
Sanjay Kelkar, the BJP’s Thane MLA, said the party had staked a claim on Thane, based on its strength. “We have four MLAs and two MLCs as opposed to the Sena’s two,” he said. “The final decision, however, will be taken by our leadership.”

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