MUMBAI: Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde announced candidates for three Lok Sabha seats Nashik, Thane and Kalyan on Wednesday, taking the tally of seats the party is contesting to 15. So far Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 27 seats in Maharashtra and the Nationalist Congress Party (NC) under the leadership of Ajit Pawar has 5, including one where ally Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) led by Mahadev Jankar.

Shinde’s son, Shrikant, has been renominated from Kalyan while former mayor Naresh Mhaske will contest from Thane after the party managed to get the Nashik seat ending weeks of speculation that senior NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal could contest from there, it renominated sitting MP Hemant Godse. The Sena however had to concede the Palghar seat to the BJP though the sitting MP, Rajendra Gavit, is from the party.

According to reports the BJP top leadership was wanting that Chhagan Bhujbal being a popular OBC leader to fight from Nashik on a BJP ticket, but the NCP leadership later told him that the Maratha community was against him due to his utterances during the Maratha reservation agitation. Bhujbal tried to hold on to the claim for some time but eventually gave up his claim saying that he was doing so and that the deadlock was resolved. The Shiv Sena (UBT) of the Uddhav Thackeray faction has fielded Rajabhau Waze from Nashik. The BJP had wanted the seat for its senior leader Dinkar Patil, who had been making preparations and is now upset. Then there is religious leader Shantigiri Maharaj who had been angling for a ticket from the Mahayuti and will now contest as an independent.

After announcing of his candidature, Shrikant Shinde who is a two-time MP from Kalyan thanked his party leadership and both the deputy chief ministers for showing faith in him and giving him the ticket and said that looking at the work done by him in the Lok Sabha, and said that he was confident that this time he will win the election with a better lead than before. Shrikant Shinde had won the last election by 3,44,343 votes from NCP's Balaji Patil. After his candidature was declared Shrikant Shinde also met to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray who has pledged his party's support for the BJP-Sena-NCP alliance. Shrikant said Raj Thackeray is also to hold rally in his support in Kalyan Lok Sabha.