Rajan Vichare: Shiv Sena (UBT) Candidate For Shinde's Bastion (image: facebook.com/rajanvicharethane)

In the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded Rajan Vichare for Thane constituency. He is pitted against two-term BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate Avinash Jadhav.

During the Shiv Sena split in 2022, Vichare was the only MP of the party from Thane district has remained loyal to Uddhav Thackeray and chose to stay with his faction. He has been associating with the Shiv Sena since his early days and later became a full-time worker for the party.

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Vichare has served as the mayor of Thane Municipal Corporation. In 2009, he contested and won from the Thane assembly segment. In the polls, he defeated MNS candidate Rajan Raje with a margin of 2441 votes.

In the 2014, 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections, he contested from Thane constituency. In the 2014 polls, Vichare won the seat, garnering 5,95,364 votes, defeating the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)’s Sanjeev Ganesh Naik, who secured 3,14,065 votes. In 2019, Vichare defeated NCP’s Anand Prakash Paranjpe by a margin of 4,12,145 votes. However, his aim for a third consecutive win failed to deliver in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Shinde Sena candidate Naresh Ganpat Mhaske won the seat with 734,231 votes, defeating Vichare by a margin of 2,17,011 votes.

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In the past two elections in 2014 and 2019, the BJP has won the Thane seat, wherein MNS was also an active contender for the post. Since this elections mark the first after the Shiv Sena split maintaining a stronghold in the constituency is a prestige matter for the ruling Maha Yuti alliance. The alliance consists of the BJP, the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde), and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP. The opposition, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar).

The Thane constituency is one of the keenly watched constituencies in Maharashtra since it is the home city and political bastion for Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. A tight competition is likely to ensue between the BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) in the constituency. The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.