Palghar: Mumbai’s neighbourhood tribal-reserved seat of Palghar became the last constituency of Maharashtra where battle lines were drawn during the ongoing 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
The contest in Palghar (ST) is going to be a triangular fight.
The three key candidates are Dr Hemant Savara of BJP, Bharti Kamdi of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT), Rajesh Patil of the Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA).
However, Vijaya Mhatre of Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi too is in the race.
Dr Savara is the son of late Vishnu Savara, who came from an RSS-BJP background and is a six-time MLA having represented Wada in 1990, 1995, 1999 and 2004, Bhiwandi Rural in 2019 and Vikramgad in 2014.
He had also been a minister in the Narayan Rane-led government and in the Devendra Fadnavis-led dispensation.
The BJP declared the name of Dr Savara on Thursday night after the seat-sharing with Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led NCP drew to a close.
Last month, Thackeray had declared the name of tribal leader Bharti Kamdi, a grassroots worker working with the party since the late nineties, after discussions with Congress and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
The Hitendra Thakur-headed BVA has nominated Patil, the sitting MLA from Boisar (ST) seat.
Incidentally Thakur is an MLA from Vasai, and his son Kshitij Thakur is MLA Nalasopara.
After the 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, Thakur’s party was number 5 in the list after BJP, Shiv Sena, NCP and Congress, however, now it is number 8 after two splits and recognition of Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (SP).
Incidentally, the BVA is part of the BJP-led Maha Yuti (NDA).
The Palghar-ST seat was carved out after delimitation in 2009 while Palghar district was carved out of Thane district on August 1, 2014.
As of now, Rajendra Gavit represents the seat, which he won in 2019 on a Shiv Sena ticket.
However, during the June-July 2022 split in the Shiv Sena, he switched loyalties to Shinde's side.
During the seat-sharing talks of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance, the seat went to the BJP quota.
However, in 2009, the Palghar seat was won by Baliram Jadhav of the Hitendra Thakur-led Bahujan Vikas Aghadi defeating Chintaman Vanaga of the BJP.
In 2014, during the Narendra Modi wave, Jadhav was defeated by Vanaga.
On January 30 2018, Vanaga died leading to bye-elections.
After this a tussle between the-then Shiv Sena and BJP started and both fielded candidates. The Shiv Sena fielded Shrinivas Vanaga, the son of Chintaman Vanaga while BJP fielded Rajendra Gavit, a former Congressman and ex-minister, leading to a multi-pronged contest which also involved BVA’s Jadhav, CPI(M)’s Kiran Gahala and Congress’ Damodar Shingada. Gavit won the polls.
In the 2019 polls, the Shiv Sena had its way and ensured that BJP won the seat and accordingly Gavit joined the-then Uddhav Thackeray-led party and won the seat. Shrinivas Vanaga became the MLA from Palghar in the subsequent Vidhan Sabha polls.
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