The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Wednesday declared four more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding Vaishali Darekar-Rane from the high-profile Kalyan constituency, currently represented by state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde.
With this, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has so far declared nominees for 21 seats in Maharashtra, which will vote in five phases starting April 19.
Addressing a news conference, Thackeray also declared the candidature of Satyajit Patil, Bharti Kamdi and Karan Pawar from Hatkanangale, Palghar, and Jalgaon constituencies, respectively.
Thackeray said if Maha Vika Aghadi (MVA) ally Congress is not keen on contesting the Mumbai North constituency, then his party will field a candidate from that seat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North constituency.
The Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde has not yet opened its cards on the Kalyan seat.
Notably, Darekar-Rane had contested from the Kalyan seat on the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket against Shiv Sena's Anand Paranjape in the 2009 elections. She had finished third by bagging 1.02 lakh votes.
Thackeray said Darekar-Rane and Bharti Kamdi are grassroots workers of the party.
Karan Pawar, a former president of Parola Municipal Council in Jalgaon district, emerged as a surprise choice of Shiv Sena-UBT on the day he joined the Thackeray camp along with sitting BJP MP Unmesh Patil.
Unmesh Patil quit the BJP after he was denied a ticket from Jalgaon. The party has fielded Smita Wagh in his place.
Thackeray also indicated that Shiv Sena-UBT will not relent on the candidate it had declared for the Sangli constituency, coveted by Congress.
The candidature of Chandrahar Patil of Shiv Sena-UBT caused heartburn in Congress which wanted to field Vishal Patil, grandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil, from Sangli, its traditional bastion in western Maharashtra.
"The Shiv Sena-UBT has ceded its traditional Kolhapur and Ramtek seats to Congress," Thackeray added.
The Congress is also upset over Shiv Sena-UBT fielding Thackeray's close aide Anil Desai from the Mumbai South-Central constituency which it was eyeing.
"If our ally (Congress) is not keen on contesting Mumbai North, then we will field a candidate from that seat. We are contesting on four (out of six) seats in Mumbai. We want the Congress to win the rest of the two seats in Mumbai, and Shiv Sena-UBT workers will help them," Thackeray added.
Satyajit Patil's candidature from Hatkanangale in western Maharashtra is seen as a jolt to Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana's Raju Shetti who was seeking Thackeray's support to contest from this constituency.
Shiv Sena-UBT leader Sanjay Raut said the party had conveyed to Shetti that he should contest on the "burning torch" symbol of Shiv Sena-UBT which he declined.
The party workers of the constituency were also of the opinion that whoever contests from the MVA should contest on the burning torch symbol, he said.
Shetti won the Hatkanangale seat in the 2009 and 2014 elections, but in 2019 he lost to Shiv Sena (undivided) candidate Dhairyasheel Mane.
Palghar seat is currently represented by undivided Shiv Sena's Rajendra Gavit.
