Suspense ends as Shrikant Shinde named Mahayuti's Kalyan LS candidate

Shrikant Shinde, son of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, will be the 'Mahayuti' candidate from the Kalyan Lok Sabha seat, deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Saturday, ending a week-long suspense over which party will get to contest the high-profile constituency.

Shrikant Shinde will face off against Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray candidate Vaishali Darekar-Rane, a former Mahrashtra Navnirman Sena leader.

Fadnavis' announcement comes at a time when a section of Bharatiya Janata Party in Kalyan has expressed reservations against fielding Shrikant Shinde, the sitting MP from Shiv Sena.

After his name was formally declared, Shrikant Shinde took a dig at Shiv Sena-UBT leaders Aaditya Thackeray and Varun Sardesai, asking where these leaders have gone now, alluding to their statements that they would contest from Kalyan.

He exuded confidence to win by a record margin.

"There is no opposition from BJP. Shrikant Shinde will be the candidate of Shiv Sena and Mahayuti from Kalyan. The BJP will stand with him with full strength, and all members of Mahayuti will ensure his victory," Fadnavis told reporters in Nagpur.

He was responding to a query on whether the delay in declaring the candidate from Kalyan was due to BJP's opposition to Shrikant Shinde's candidature.

In the 2019 elections, the Shinde junior, who contested as Shiv Sena (undivided) nominee, had garnered 5,59,723 votes against his Nationalist Congress Party (undivided) challenger Babaji Balaram Patil, who bagged 2,15,380 votes.

Darekar-Rane had contested the 2009 polls from Kalyan as a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena nominee.

Simmering tensions between cadres of Shiv Sena led by Shinde and the BJP took a violent turn earlier this year when BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shot at and injured a local leader of Sena in Kalyan over a land dispute.

A doctor by qualification, Shrikant Shinde was first elected to Lok Sabha from Kalyan in 2014 and again in 2019.

The local BJP cadre, however, has been demanding that the constituency be allotted to the party in the Mahayuti seat-sharing agreement, arguing that three of the six assembly segments have BJP MLAs. The rest three seats have Shiv Sena, MNS and NCP-Sharad Pawar MLA each.