Shiv Sena’s Anant Geete All Set To Retake Raigad Bastion (image-facebook/

Two heavyweights will face off against each other in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in the Rajgad constituency. Anant Gangaram Geete is fielded as the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate. The Shiva Sena has decided to pin its hope on the former union minister. Meanwhile, the Ajit-Pawar-led NCP has put forward sitting MP and its Maharashtra President Sunil Tatkare. 

Geete has represented the seat six times, however, lost to Tatkare in 2019 by at least 30,000 votes. Anant Geete has served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Sector Enterprises from 2014 to 2019 in Narendra Modi cabinet. He was also the former Union Cabinet minister for power. 

In the 2014 general election, riding on the Modi wave, Geete won the seat defeating Tatkare. Geete is supported by the Congress, the NCP-SP, the Peasants and Workers Party and other smaller and like-minded parties. He is banking on the support from the politically influential Kunbi community and also from the Muslim voters.

The Raigad will go to polls in the third phase on May 7, the score between the two big leaders since 2014 is at 1-1. Geete defeated Tatkare in 2014, while the NCP leader wrested the seat from the Sena veteran in 2019.

Raigad constituency is one of the first capitals of Maratha rule in Maharashtra. Geete was born in Tisangi, a village in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. 

Traditionally, Raigad has been a Sena bastion but after the split, the numbers speak more in favor of the Shinde-led Sena. Now, Geete, Thackeray’s trusted confidant is set to establish his party’s dominance in this constituency.