03 November,2024 07:51 AM IST | Mumbai | Sameer Surve
MNS’s Sewri candidate Bala Nandgaonkar; Ajay Choudhari, incumbent Sewri MLA; Nana Ambole, Shiv Sena corporator; Sada Sarvankar, Shinde Sena’s Mahim candidate; MNS candidate Amit Thackeray; Sena (UBT)’s Mahesh Sawant
The Sewri and Mahim constituencies will see a showdown between all three Senas. In the former seat, sitting Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Ajay Choudhari, MNS's Bala Nandgaonkar and Independent Nana Ambole, who was once a member of the undivided Shiv Sena, will butt heads. In the latter constituency, sitting Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar, Sena (UBT) candidate Mahesh Sawant and MNS leader Amit Thackeray, son of party chief Raj Thackeray, will face off.
Sarvankar, a three-time corporator and three-time MLA of the undivided Shiv Sena, joined the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after the party split. Sawant, now fighting the poll on a Sena (UBT) ticket, started his political career under Sarvankar in the undivided Shiv Sena. Sarvankar is not contesting an election for the first time against Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray. In 2009, the Dadar Assembly constituency was merged into the Mahim seat. At the time, a dispute arose between Sarvankar and Mahim MLA Suresh Gambhir over candidature. As a solution, Shiv Sena nominated Marathi actor Adesh Bandekar. Sarvankar then joined the Congress and contested the election. Nitin Sardesai of the MNS, however, won this election. Later, Sarvankar joined the Shiv Sena and became the MLA of Mahim in 2014.
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In Sewri, Choudhari, the sitting MLA, is up against Nandgaonkar, a former state minister of the undivided Shiv Sena. Ambole served as an undivided Shiv Sena corporator twice. He joined the BJP in 2017.
Nandgaonkar is known as a giant killer. When strongman Chhagan Bhujbal had quit the Shiv Sena and joined Congress, it was Nandgaonkar who held fort by retaining the Sena's Mazgaon seat in the 1995 Assembly election. Later, he joined the MNS and went on to defeat Dagdu Sakpal in 2009 from the Sewri constituency. Nandgaonkar lost from the Sewri constituency to Choudhari in 2014.
There was speculation that Ambole would contest on a Shinde Sena ticket in Sewri. However, the party did not field a candidate for the seat.
61,337
No. of votes polled by Sada Sarvankar in 2019
