Aaditya raises Sena stakes

Set to contest from Worli – will be the first Thackeray to do so

For the first time in the State’s political history, a scion of the Thackeray family will contest an election.

Aaditya Thackeray, the Yuva Sena chief and son of Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, is expected to file his nomination from the Worli Assembly constituency on October 3.

(The Shiv Sena, of course, is yet to officially release a list or announce the name of Aaditya. The give-away came when Kishori Pednekar, a corporator from the constituency, put out a tweet on Sunday congratulating Aaditya for being nominated from Worli.)

The decision by the Thackeray family is seen as a pleasant departure from the tradition of not contesting any election. Given the local equations and strong base of the Shiv Sena, it is expected that the Thackeray dynast, Aaditya, will win the seat with a thumping majority.

The buzz is that the Shiv Sena has been promised the Deputy Chief Minister’s post by the BJP. Thackeray Junior’s nomination is to be seen against this backdrop.

When Sachin Ahir, the then Mumbai Nationalist Congress Party president joined Shiv Sena in July this year, the party had dropped a clear hint that Aaditya would contest from Worli.

By co-opting Ahir, Aaditya ensured that there will be no strong candidate him in the constituency, if he decides to contest.

Shiv Sena bastion: The Worli assembly constituency is a wellknown Sena bastion spread across Haji Ali Dargah, Worli Naka, Phoenix Mall, Lower Parel, Kamgar Nagar, Sidharth Nagar and Koliwada. From 1990 to 2004, Shiv Sena’s Dattaji Nalawade won the seat four times.

In 2009, NCP’s Mumbai president Sachin Ahir won the seat for the first time by a margin of just 5,000 votes. He trounced Ashish Chemburkar of the Sena. But in 2014, the Sena wrested the seat from the NCP and that too without help from the BJP. Sena’s Sunil Shinde had defeated Ahir by 23,000 votes, even though BJP’s Sunil Rane garnered more than 30,000 votes.

As party’s topmost leader is contesting the election, the sitting legislator, Sunil Shinde, has been denied a ticket from Worli.