It's official. A day after Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray submitted his nomination from Worli Assembly Constituency, the Shinde faction announced that Rajya Sabha MP Milind Deora would be the Mahayuti candidate from the constituency, paving the way for a Sena versus Sena battle.
Deora, who quit his family's five-decade-long relationship with Congress, to join Shiv Sena in January and was soon made a Rajya Sabha MP by the party. He was also given the task of overseeing Worli, which falls under the South Mumbai Lok Sabha constituency. Deora did commendable work as the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate had to struggle to clinch Mumbai South in the recent Lok Sabha polls despite it being Aaditya's constituency and a Thackeray stronghold.
The party candidate Arvind Sawant received the lowest votes from Worli among the six assembly constituencies under Mumbai South.
Aaditya will also have a formidable enemy in Sandeep Deshpande of the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). There are speculations over MNS's covert support for the Mahayuti Government, considering that MNS chief Raj Thackeray had extended support to the Mahayuti Government, comprising the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), BJP, and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), during the Parliament elections. However, it decided to go solo in the assembly election.
Deshpande has begun his campaign accusing sitting MLA Aaditya of failing to address the constituency's concerns. He added that Aaditya, like his father Uddhav Thackeray, was not accessible to the common people.
The drubbing Sena candidate received in Worli has cheered MNS though Shiv Sena (UBT) attributed the low majority to the overconfidence of the party and said Aaditya's appeal remains intact. "The drop in the lead does not mean that people were upset with us. Our candidate was far better than our rival (Shiv Sena's Yamini Jadhav). But in the Lok Sabha polls, it was the Modi factor. We did not get the expected response from high-rises," Shiv Sena (UBT) MLC Sunil Shinde justified it.
The change in political equations is evident from the fact that in 2019, Raj Thackeray did not field any candidate against Aditya Thackeray on the Worli seat.
While Sandeep Deshpande had secured around 33,000 votes in Worli in the 2017 municipal elections, an MNS candidate from Worli will also likely split Maratha votes, which usually went for Shiv Sena candidate.