Maha: Aditya Thackeray to contest polls form Worli

Much on expected lines, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray's son Aditya would be contesting the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly elections.

Aditya (29), the grandson of late Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, would contest the Worli seat from Mumbai.

Thus, he would become the first member of the Thackeray family to enter the electoral fray.

Aditya has been projected as the chief ministerial candidate of the Shiv Sena, a development that has not gone down well among the top brass of its ally, BJP.

On Sunday, Uddhav started distributing AB forms to candidates and his name figured in the list.

"Aditya ji would be contesting the polls from Worli, he would be filing papers in a day or two," an aide of Uddhav confirmed to DH on Sunday evening.

However, neither Uddhav nor Aditya had spoken to media on the latest development.

In fact, even before any formal alliance between BJP and Shiv Sena is announced, the latter had started distribution of AB forms for the traditional Shiv Sena seats and bastions.

In the last two months, Aditya has toured the state as part of the Jan Aashirwad Yatra.

The Worli seat is currently represented by Sunil Shinde. Before that, it was held by Sachin Ahir, who had left NCP to join Shiv Sena.

Aditya took over as Yuva Sena president in 2010 and was made a "leader" of Shiv Sena in 2018.

A fitness and sports enthusiast, he is also president of Mumbai District Football Association.

He has a considerable following among the youth and now he is championing for the protection of Aarey Milk Colony, a green lung of Mumbai, where the crashed of Metro Line 3 has been proposed. In fact, the project is directly overseen by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and the crashed project has become a bone of contention of the two saffron allies.

Aditya had been instrumental in enforcing the plastic ban in Mumbai and has also favoured the nightlife of Mumbai.