Sachin Ahir elected legislative council deputy chairman day after joining Shiv Sena

Ahir was elected after the Opposition grouping Maha Vikas Aghadi nominee J M Abhyankar withdrew his nomination

Sachin Ahir, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance candidate, was unanimously elected as Maharashtra legislative council deputy chairman on Wednesday, a day after he defected from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) to the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena on Tuesday.

Sachin Ahir at the state assembly in Mumbai. (PTI)

Ahir, who was a close aide to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray, is a prominent trade union leader. He represented Worli in the assembly in 2009. Ahir has a strong organisational base in the Worli constituency and played a key role in managing Aaditya Thackeray’s election campaigns in 2019 and 2024.

Ahir was elected after the Opposition grouping Maha Vikas Aghadi ) nominee J M Abhyankar withdrew his nomination at the request of parliamentary affairs minister Chandrakant Patil, citing a tradition

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis thanked the Opposition for making the election unanimous. He recalled that he and Ahir started their legislative careers together. Fadnavis said that former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar trained Ahir, who knows how to strike at the right moment.

Ahir quit Shiv Sena (UBT) days after six out of the party’s nine Lok Sabha members defected to Shinde-led Shiv Sena.