Did Raj Thackeray’s MNS prevent the elimination of Uddhav Sena in Mumbai?

The Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), in disarray across the state, managed to win 10 of the 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai. Of these 10 seats, three were won with a margin of less than 2,000 votes in the recent Maharashtra assembly elections.

But was this victory due to Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)? Even though the MNS failed to win any seats in the Assembly elections and faces the risk of derecognition, the party candidates split votes, causing Mahayuti to lose 10 seats in Mumbai.

In Worli, Aaditya Thackeray won the Worli seat by a margin of just 8,800 votes against Shiv Sena’s Milind Deora and MNS’ Sandeep Deshpande. While Aaditya got 63,324 votes, Milind Deora, on the other hand, got 54,523 votes.

MNS’s Deshpande could not poll more than 19,000 votes. The division of votes led to Aaditya’s victory in the state. In Mahim, Raj Thackeray’s son got a little over 33,000 votes in his electoral debut but was unable to win the seat.

Instead, Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Mahesh Sawant won the seat with a margin of just 1,316 votes against Shiv Sena’s Sada Sarvankar and will enter the Maharashtra assembly for the first time.

The same thing happened in seats like Dindoshi, Jogeshwari East, Guhagar, Wani, Vikhroli, Bandra East, Versova and Kalina in Mumbai.

In Bandra East, Uddhav Thackeray’s nephew Varun Sardesai won against NCP’s Zeeshan Siddique by a margin of over 11,000 votes. MNS’s Trupti Sawant got over 16,000 votes, causing a division in Mahayuti’s vote share in the seat.

Sanjay Nirupam of Shiv Sena lost the Dindoshi assembly seat by a margin of 6,182 votes to Sunil Prabhu of Shiv Sena (UBT). MNS candidate Barrister Bhaskar Parab polled only 20,309 votes, which effectively hurt Nirupam’s prospects.

In Vikhroli, Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s brother Sanjay Raut won with a margin of 15,526 votes by securing 66,093 votes against Shiv Sena’s Suvarna Karanje. Karanje won 50,567 votes while Vishwajit Dholam of MNS got only 16,813 votes.

Another similar case is happening in Jogeshwari East, where Anant Nar of Shiv Sena (UBT) won by just 1,541 votes against Manisha Waikar of Shinde Sena. The twist in the story is that MNS candidate Bhalchandra Ambure won 12,805 votes.

In Versova, Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Haroon Khan won against BJP veteran Dr Bharati Lavekar by a margin of just 1,600 votes. Haroon Khan got 65,396 votes while Dr Lavekar got 63,796 votes. Raju Pednekar of MNS got 6,752 votes.

In Kalina, Sanjay Potnis of the Uddhav Sena won with 59,820 votes. BJP’s Amarjeet Singh was defeated by a margin of 5,008 votes while MNS’ Balakrishna Hudgi got 6,062 votes. A similar trend was also observed in Wani and Guhagar.

In Wani, Sanjay Devkar of SS (UBT) won by a margin of 15,560 votes, securing 94,618 votes. BJP’s Sanjivereddy Bapurao Bodkurwar got 79,058 votes. MNS candidate Raju Umbarkar got 21,977 votes, reducing Mahayuti’s strength here.

In Guhagar Assembly seat, Uddhav Sena candidate Bhaskar Jadhav won by securing 71,241 votes and defeated Shinde Sena’s Rajesh Bendal by a margin of 2,830 votes. Pramod Gandhi of MNS contributed by polling 6,712 votes.