Thin leads in strongholds like Worli alarming for Shiv Sena (UBT) ahead of state polls

Mumbai: Despite winning three of four Lok Sabha seats it contested in Mumbai, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has reason to be worried ahead of the state assembly elections later this year. Its candidates had thin victory margins in some assembly segments held by party MLAs, like Worli, Dindoshi and Andheri East. Worli is especially worrying, since it’s the assembly constituency of party scion Aaditya Thackeray.

In the first election after Eknath Shinde split the Shiv Sena in 2022 and became chief minister under a Bharatiya Janata Party-led alliance, the Uddhav Thackeray faction of the party proved that it still controls Mumbai. The Shinde-led Sena managed to win only one seat in the city, and that too by a minuscule margin of 48 votes.

The Thackeray faction retained Mumbai South and wrested Mumbai North East from the BJP and Mumbai South Central from the Shinde-led Sena. However, the assembly segment-wise voting data would be a bit alarming for the Thackeray camp, which will now lock horns with the Shinde Sena-BJP alliance again in the assembly elections. It has underlined the need for the Thackeray faction to be guarded against complacency while defending their traditional strongholds.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant won the Mumbai South constituency for the third time, with 52,673 votes. He managed to get a massive lead of 46,066 in Shinde Sena candidate and MLA Yamini Jadhav’s own assembly constituency, Byculla. In the Sewri assembly segment, represented by Shiv Sena MLA Ajay Chaudhari, Sawant got a lead of 16,903.

However, Sawant’s lead in Worli, represented by Aaditya Thackeray in the state assembly, was just 6,715 votes. Since 2019, when the Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena parted ways with the BJP, the party has been focused on targeting Aaditya Thackeray in his Worli constituency. A slender winning margin for Sawant in the Lok Sabha elections could mean defending Worli might be challenging for Aaditya in the assembly elections.

In the Mumbai North West constituency, Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Waikar won by only 48 votes against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Amol Kirtikar. It was a shocking defeat for the Thackeray faction. Kirtikar won the Jogeshwari East segment, represented by Waikar in the state assembly, but lost by over 10,000 votes in Andheri East, where Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Rutuja Latke is the MLA. Besides, the margin for Kirtikar in the Dindoshi assembly segment, represented by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Sunil Prabhu, was a mere 1,701.

Aaditya Thackeray on Friday held a meeting to review the voting in Lok Sabha elections and Worli in particular. “We told him that the use of money by rivals affected the voting,” said a party leader. “The delayed projects due to legal issues also cost us, as the ruling alliance spread the rumours that our party had a role in delaying the projects. After listening to all of us, Aaditya Thackeray told everyone to work with new hope and energy for the assembly elections. We have identified the issues affecting the margins and will work on it.”