No party is ready to concede an inch and no candidate is a clear favourite in the battle for the four Lok Sabha constituencies in Thane district.
No party is ready to concede an inch and no candidate is a clear favourite in the battle for the four Lok Sabha constituencies in Thane district. Since all prominent parties — Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena and BJP — are vying to capture turf in Palghar, Bhiwandi, Kalyan and Thane, a fierce battle is on the cards. The MNS has played spoilsport, mostly by fielding Rajan Rane (Thane), a qualified candidate. Unlike rest of Maharashtra, Sena and NCP will fight a bitter war here. The Congress has fielded Suresh Taware, a non-Muslim candidate, from Bhiwandi and expects him to beat Jagannath Patil (BJP). In Palghar, it’ll be a close contest between Damu Shingla (Cong) and Chintamani Wanga (BJP).
It will be tough to predict which way the vote swings in Thane. Last elections, the Sena had won Thane and the Congress had won Dahanu, a reserved seat. This time, the delimitation has added two new constituencies - Bhiwandi and Palghar- and changed all calculations.
The delimitation has left some of the most high profile candidates, such Anand Paranjpe (Shiv Sena), Vasant Davkhare (NCP) and Jagannath Patil (BJP), on slippery ground since their constituents are no longer the same. Not only has the field been thrown wide open after this, it has left the Congress and the BJP with some complicated equations to work out, courtesy the BSP and the MNS. Both of these 'spoilsports' have fielded strong local candidates against perceived outsiders.
The BSP's line-up in Bhiwandi, Kalyan and Thane is likely to damage the BJP, the Sena and the NCP. However, the contest in Thane appears to be between the Sena and the NCP. While the BJP's support base has dwindled, the Congress is gasping to maintain its presence.
Seat sharing has caused a heartburn in cadres of the BJP and the Sena. The BJP had a base in Kalyan, but had to settle for Bhiwandi a Sena bastion.
This strange deal has forced Paranjpe and Davkhare to shift to Kalyan. Jagannath Patil (BJP) too had to shift from Dombivali to Bhiwandi has now faces the BSPs formidable Kunbi Sena leader, Vishwanath Patil. The going's no different for Congress MP Damodar Shingda in Palghar (ST) who loses his minority votes in Bhiwandi. Shingda now will have to depend upon the support of Independent MLA and Vasai Vikas Aghadi leader Hitendra Thakur in Nalasopara and Vasai.
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