An agreement has reportedly been reached between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena to field Eknath Shinde’s son, Shrikant Shinde, from the Kalyan Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra during the upcoming general elections. In exchange, the BJP may be offered the Thane Lok Sabha seat, both of which have been Shiv Sena strongholds for years.
Eknath Shinde currently serves as an MLA from Thane, while his son, Shrikant, is the Member of Parliament (MP) from Kalyan. Kalyan has historically been a bastion of the Shiv Sena, with Anand Paranjpe securing a victory on the party’s ticket in 2009. In 2014 and 2019, Shrikant Shinde was elected with the support of the BJP, which was then in an alliance with the undivided Shiv Sena.
Sources indicate that there is a near-consensus between the BJP and Shinde’s Shiv Sena that only Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s son, Shrikant Shinde, should contest from the Kalyan Lok Sabha seat. As part of the agreement, the BJP may be given the Thane Lok Sabha seat in place of the Kalyan seat. This exchange could see Shinde yielding his stronghold of the Thane seat to secure his son’s current Kalyan seat.
Shrikant Shinde currently holds the Kalyan seat, while Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare represents the Thane Lok Sabha seat.
The dispute over the Kalyan seat has led to tensions between the BJP and Shiv Sena, despite their alliance in the Maharashtra government.
BJP workers have pressed for the party’s candidate to receive the Kalyan seat ticket, asserting the party’s strength in the region. However, Shiv Sena workers have consistently opposed the BJP’s demands.
