With barely two days remaining for the filing of nomination papers for the last phase of Lok Sabha nominations in the state, the grand coalition candidates for the Thane and Nashik seats were announced on Wednesday. Therefore, the tussle over seat allocation in the grand alliance has been resolved for the last one and a half months and it has become clear that Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena has bagged 15 seats, BJP has got 28 seats, NCP Ajit Pawar group has got four seats and NCP has got one seat.
Although the deadline for filing the applications for the fifth phase was till Friday, six seats in the Grand Alliance were not yet filled. Finally, in the last two days, except for Palghar, the issue of other constituencies has been resolved. Among them, Naresh Mhaske, a Shinde loyalist from Thane constituency, and Hemant Godse, the sitting MP from Nashik, were announced on Tuesday.
By forcing three Lok Sabha candidates to change, the BJP will create a dilemma for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. It is said that BJP has given a nod to Shinde only to maintain the existence of Shiv Sena. Both Thane and Nashik constituencies were prestigious for Shiv Sena. It was suggested from BJP's circle in Delhi that Chhagan Bhujbal should be nominated from Nashik. According to this, Bhujbal had started preparations. But Shinde had strongly refused to leave the seat of Nashik. In the end, Bhujbal retreated in disgust. MP Hemant Godse was traveling to Nashik, Mumbai and Thane for the last month to announce his candidature. Finally the candidature of Hemant Godse was announced.
BJP had planned to contest 30 to 32 seats in Maharashtra. But due to Chief Minister Shinde's insistence, BJP also failed. BJP has 28 seats, Shinde group 15, Ajit Pawar group of NCP 4 and NCP party got one seat. BJP had to compromise on three to four seats. Ajit Pawar group currently had only one MP. The party had demanded eight to nine seats. But only four seats have gone to NCP. Out of these in Shirur and Dharashiv candidates have to be imported from Shinde Sena and BJP. Due to this Sunil Tatkare and Sunetra Pawar are the only two original party candidates.
The candidature of Chief Minister's son Dr. Shrikant Shinde was officially announced from Kalyan. Shrikant had already started campaigning. MNS chief Raj Thackeray has announced his unconditional support to Mahayuti. Even though MNS is not in the election arena, efforts have been started by the grand alliance that Raj Thackeray should campaign in Mumbai, Thane to support the Shiv Sena Thackeray group.
Palghar for BJP?
Although the Shinde group claims that they have the right to Palghar, Shinde is ready to leave this constituency to the BJP.
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