Maharashtra assembly elections 2024: Zeeshan Siddique pitted against Thackeray kin

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP Chief Ajit Pawar felicitates Zeeshan Siddique as the latter joins the party and will contest from the Bandra East constituency. Pic/PTI

As expected, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has fielded Zeeshan Siddique from Bandra East for the forthcoming Assembly elections. This will be Zeeshan's second election from the same constituency, and it holds significance in the wake of his father Baba Siddique's murder last month.

Zeeshan moved to NCP (Ajit Pawar) from Congress on Friday. His father, also a former Congress MLA, had joined the Ajit Pawar faction earlier this year. Zeeshan said Ajit Pawar and his associates were a great support to him in the aftermath of his father's death. He accused the Congress leaders of conspiring against him while he was in distress. In MVA's seat-sharing, Bandra East has been taken by Shiv Sena (UBT) which has announced Varun Sardesai's nomination for it. In 2019, Zeeshan shifted from his father's traditional seat of Bandra West to Bandra East. He beat the undivided Sena's Vishwanath Mahadeshwar. In a fight that divided votes, Sena rebel Trupti Sawant, then sitting MLA, got over 24,000 votes.

IN PHOTOS: Zeeshan Siddique joins Ajit Pawar-led NCP ahead of Maharashtra Elections 2024

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Together, the candidates of AIMIM and MNS polled over 22,000 votes. Zeeshan's tally was over 38,000 votes and Mahadeshwar shared over 32,000, thus giving one of the youngest contestants of Maharashtra a victory by a margin of over 5,000 votes. It is the segment where the Sena (UBT) President Uddhav Thackeray's family votes and makes the battle prestigious. It is where Sawant had inflicted a humiliating defeat on the then Congress leader, Narayan Rane, in a by-election that was necessitated by her husband's death in 2015. Five years later, the equations have changed for Zeeshan, who relies on the BJP, NCP, and Shiv Sena splinters to lift him. The sympathy his father's murder has generated for his family is expected to boost his prospects. In the Sena (UBT) camp, Sardesai is unlikely to face a rebel, but will certainly have the other candidates splitting votes. A lot also depends on how the Congress works here in support of Sardesai.

Malik's daughter fielded

In another declaration, NCP nominated its sitting MLA Nawab Malik's daughter Sana Malik from Anushakti Nagar. She replaced her father whose candidature was opposed by the ally, BJP. Before Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP, Malik faced a money laundering case. He is out on bail now. It is said that Nawab Malik may run as an NCP-backed independent in Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar.

Imports from BJP

NCP loaned two more candidates from the BJP on Friday. Pratap Patil Chikhalikar and Sanjay Kaka Patil, who lost the recent Lok Sabha elections as the BJP nominees, were inducted into the new party minutes before they were named in the second list of seven. Pratap Patil will contest in Loha in Nanded district and Sanjay in Sangli's Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal. Nishikant Patil has been pitted against the NCP-SP factions' state president Jayant Patil. Sunil Tingre, a sitting MLA from Vadgaon Sheri in Pune district, has been re-nominated.