Mumbai:
Battle lines have been drawn in six parliamentary constituencies in Mumbai, where Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena will battle it out on three seats.
While two seats will witness battles between the traditional rivals – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress, in one seat the Shiv Sena (UBT) and BJP will duke it out.
The six constituencies in Mumbai are Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central, Mumbai North, Mumbai North Central, Mumbai North East, Mumbai North West. These are among the thirteen seats in Maharashtra that will go to polls in the fifth and final phase on May 20.
Mumbai South, Mumbai South Central and Mumbai North West will see a fight between the two Senas, while Mumbai North East will be a showdown between BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT).
In Mumbai South, sitting Uddhav Thackeray MP Arvind Sawant will take on Yamini Jadhav of the Shinde-led Sena. Jadhav represents Byculla constituency in Mumbai.
Sena (UBT) leader Anil Desai will take on Rahul Shewale of the Shinde-led Sena in Mumbai South-Central. While Desai was a member of Rajya Sabha until recently, Shewale is the sitting Lok Sabha member.
Amol Kirtikar of the Thackeray camp will take on Ravindra Waikar of the ruling Sena in Mumbai North West. Waikar, who was earlier with the Sena (UBT), recently joined the Shinde camp. He currently represents Jogeshwari East constituency in Mumbai.
Congress MLA Varsha Gaikwad, president of the party in Mumbai, will take on noted lawyer Ujjwal Nikam fielded by the BJP in Mumbai North Central, while Union Minister and BJP veteran Piyush Goyal will take on Bhushan Patil from the Mumbai North Congress. While Gaikwad represents the Dharavi assembly segment in Mumbai, Goyal is a Rajya Sabha member.
In Mumbai North East, Mihir Kotecha of BJP will contest against Sanjay Dina Patil of Sena UBT. Kotecha is the MLA from Mulund constituency in Mumbai.
After filing her nomination form, Gaikwad called on Uddhav Thackeray, who promised her his support and said she would be sent to Delhi as an MP. This will be the first time that Thackeray will vote for a Congress candidate as his hometown in Bandra falls under the Mumbai North Central constituency.
The Congress and Shiv Sena were traditional political opponents in Mumbai until 2019.
“Despite being adversaries, the two sides have reached tactical agreement on many occasions to gain positions of power, especially in Mumbai's civic body,” said senior journalist Prakash Akolkar.
As per the picture emerging on the ground, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress cadre have developed well on the ground.
Mr Gaikwad visited all Shiv Sena shakhas in the North Central constituency of Mumbai, seeking “blessings” from the Uddhav Thackeray-led cadre and in turn promised to always be available to them and fight for issues related to the city. She was warmly welcomed everywhere.
Since 2014, the Congress has lost all the Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai, while it could win only five of the 36 seats in the 2019 Assembly elections.
With former Mumbai South MP Milind Deora defecting to the Shiv Sena and former Mumbai North Central MP Priya Dutt refusing to contest again, the Congress had no candidates to field.
Party leader Sanjay Nirupam was shown the door for his criticism of the Congress leadership over its inability to ensure equal distribution of seats in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
This will be the first major electoral test after the political realignment that emerged in 2019.
Earlier, the Andheri East assembly by-election took place but the Shinde-led Sena or the BJP did not field any candidate.
The BJP has replaced all three sitting MPs, while Shinde's Shiv Sena has only renominated Rahul Shewale (Mumbai South-Central) and replaced Gajanan Kirtikar in Mumbai North-West.
Mumbai is divided into Mumbai city and Mumbai suburban district.
The Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central constituencies are located in the city of Mumbai, while the rest of the constituencies are located in the suburbs of Mumbai. The nomination process is underway. The last date for submission of nominations is May 3.
Mumbai city has over 24 lakh voters, while its suburbs have 74 lakh voters.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)