Kopri-Pachpakhadi Election Result: With 1,20,717 Vote Margin, Eknath Shinde Retains Seat
In Kopri-Pachpakhadi assembly segment, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde won the constituency with a margin of 1,20,717 votes. He defeated the rival Kedar Dighe of the Shiv Sena (UBT).
Shinde has been representing the constituency since 2009 and was formerly the legislator of the Thane Assembly segment from 2004 to 2009. In the 2019 election, he defeated Congress candidate Sanjay Ghadigaonkar by a margin of 89,300 votes. In the previous 2014 election, Shinde emerged victorious, defeating Sandeep Lele of the BJP. Shinde secured 1,00,316 votes, while Lele garnered 48,447 votes.
Shinde moulded his political personality through the mentorship of Thane strongman Anand Dighe. After Dighe’s death, Shinde continued his legacy, emerged as a powerful Shena leader, and made Thane his political bastion. In the present polls, he encountered Kedar, Dighe’s nephew.
Though Kedar was active in the Thane politics since 2006, his name never came in the spotlight, Indian Express reports. He held several positions in Yuva Sena, the Sena UBT’s youth wing. A new face in electoral politics, the Thackeray group was attempting to evoke sympathy in favour of Kedar through Anand Dighe’s name and present him as a real successor to Dighe’s political inheritance than Shinde
Though not a man of oratorial excellence, Shinde is well-known as a tactician and accessible leader. He acts as a strong link between the BJP and Sena and solves the differences between the two parties. Close to the top leaders of the saffron party, Shinde makes political arrangements and communications easier. Also, most importantly, the fellow politicians and leaders consider Shinde the most approachable leader, unlike the Thackerays. Shinde claims him to be the legitimate political heir of Bal Thackeray.
He was quite confident of Mahayuti’s victory in the election. “We are very confident. We are running on our record of development, not on false narratives like the opposition. Maharashtra has changed, both in terms of infrastructure and socioeconomic development. We have prioritised people-centric development and long-term planning for the future of the state’s citizens,” Shinde told The Week.
