Mumbai: The fate of two union ministers, sitting and former MPs, sitting and former MLAs would be decided when 10 seats of Mumbai and the larger Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) goes to polls during the Phase-5 elections in Maharashtra.
The two union ministers whose fate would be decided are Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who is a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister of State for Panchayati Raj, Kapil Patil, both from the BJP and several from political families.
The seats in Mumbai going to polls are Mumbai South, Mumbai South-Central, Mumbai North-Central, Mumbai North-East, Mumbai North-West and Mumbai North.
The three seats in Thane districts are Thane, Kalyan and Bhiwandi.
The other seat is Palghar (ST) in Palghar seat.
Of these 10 seats, five involve contests between Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).
Other contests include two between BJP vs Congress, two between BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) and one between BJP and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).
Most of the contests are direct contests, however, there are smaller parties which can impact the big players.
The Palghar (ST) seat would witness a triangular contest where BJP has fielded former minister late Vishnu Savara's son Dr Hemant Sawara against Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Bharti Kamdi, however BJP’s ally Hitendra Thakur, who heads the Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA), has put up sitting Boisar (ST) MLA Rajesh Patil.
Kalyan would be an interesting seat to watch as Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son and two-time sitting MP Dr Shrikant Shinde is contesting against Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Vaishali Darekar-Rane, who had been associated with Raj Thackeray-led MNS before joining Shiv Sena and siding with Uddhav Thackeray.
In neighbouring Bhiwandi, Minister of State for Panchayati Raj Kapil Patil of BJP is taking on Suresh alias Balyamama Mhatre of NCP (SP) and Nilesh Sambare, who has support of the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).
The contest in Thane, which was very close to late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, sees candidates from the two factions - two-time sitting MP Rajan Vichare of Shiv Sena (UBT), who is a close aide of Thackeray family and Naresh Mhaske, a close aide of Shinde. Both Vichare and Mhaske had been former Mayors of Thane City.
In Mumbai South, two time-sitting MP and former Union Heavy Industries Minister Arvind Sawant of Shiv Sena (UBT) would take on Shiv Sena’s Byculla MLA Yamini Jadhav.
In Mumbai South-Central, Thackeray has fielded former Rajya Sabha member and party’s Shiv Sena (UBT)’s secretary Anil Desai against two-time sitting MP Rahul Shewale, the group leader of Shiv Sena in the Lok Sabha.
In Mumbai North-Central, the BJP denied renomination to two-time sitting MP Poonam Mahajan, the daughter of late BJP stalwart Pramod Mahajan and fielded eminent lawyer Ujjwal Nikam against Prof Varsha Gaikwad, the four-time Dharavi MLA and Mumbai Congress president.
In Mumbai North-East, the Shiv Sena (UBT) fielded Sanjay Dina Patil, a former MP of undivided NCP against Mihir Kotecha, a BJP MLA.
In Mumbai North, the Congress has fielded Bhushan Patil to take on Piyush Goyal, a BJP stalwart.
In Mumbai North-West, the contest involves sitting Shiv Sena MP Gajanan Kirtikar’s son Amol Kirtikar, who has been fielded by Shiv Sena (UBT) and Ravindra Waikar, an MLA, who recently switched sides from Thackeray to Shinde.