Maharashtra polls: Milind Deora’s entry intensifies Worli battle against Aaditya Thackeray

Aaditya Thackeray's re-election bid in Worli faces tough competition with Milind Deora and Sandeep Deshpande entering the race, complicating his campaign

Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray’s campaign for re-election from Worli, thought to be a cakewalk, has become a tough three-cornered contest with the Shinde faction’s decision on Friday to field Milind Deora. In addition, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena too has decided to field their candidate Sandeep Deshpande.

Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader Milind Deora(HT File)

Deora who was elected MP from South Mumbai in 2004 when he was the Congress and who has since been nominated to the Rajya Sabha by Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena announced his entry into the electoral fray on social media. “Chief minister Eknath Shinde believes that justice for Worli and Worlikars is long overdue. Together, we are paving the way forward and will share our vision soon. It’s Worli now!” he posted on X

Deora’s candidature was announced two days after Shinde-led Sena fielded Sada Sarvankar and Sena (UBT) named Mahesh Sawant as candidates opposite Raj Thackeray’s son Amit from Mahim constituency ensuring that both Thackeray cousins face a tough triangular contest. “The Sena was sure of Deora’s win from Worli,” said BJP leader Ashish Shelar who heads the party’s Mumbai unit.

In 2019, Uddhav Thackeray handpicked Worli for Aaditya, as the cosmopolitan constituency has a significant portion of Marathi speaking voters, including fisherfolk, Dalits, Muslims and an equal distribution of voters from north and south India. In his first election Aaditya Thackeray won handsomely with 89,248 votes while his rival, NCP’s Suresh Mane, got only 21,821 votes.

During the pandemic, Aaditya did significant work in the constituency, personally supervising admissions of Covid-affected patients in green-field hospitals set up by his father’s government. He pushed for redevelopment of the century-old Bombay Development Department (BDD) Chawl, and improvement of BMC-run schools.

Given Uddhav Thackeray’s uncertain health, Aaditya was expected to campaign extensively across the state for the Shiv Sena (UBT), but with Deora’s entry into the fray the matrix changes and may force the young Thackeray to spend more time campaigning in his constituency.

Deora, a seasoned south Mumbai leader, is expected to cut into Thackeray’s non-Marathi votes including the sizeable Gujarati and Marwari population even though he was unable to convert his popularity into wins in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He joined Eknath Shinde’s party in 2024 and was sent to the Rajya Sabha as MP shorty afterwards.

In the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, Sena (UBT)’s margin was reduced in the Worli segment of south Mumbai Lok Sabha seat won by them from 34000 votes in 2019 to 6715 votes, and for which Aaditya faced criticism from his partymen. Subsequently, the party had briefly considered shifting Aaditya to a safer constituency like the Marathi-dominated Sewree but then Aaditya preferred to stick to Worli. “Everyone has the right to contest in a democracy. Deora knows how strong we are in Worli and we will face him squarely,” said Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sachin Ahir.