Mumbai: The ruling Shiv Sena has won seven of the 15 Lok Sabha seats it contested in Maharashtra, including Thane, the political constituency of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, but it is losing two constituencies to its rival Shiv Sena (UBT) in Mumbai. The area has been lost.
Shinde's next challenge will be the crucial assembly elections later this year that will decide which faction is the "real" Shiv Sena following a split in the party in 2022 - the one controlled by him or his arch rival Uddhav Thackeray.
Of the 15 seats, Shiv Sena was in a direct contest with its rival Shiv Sena (UBT) on 13 and won six of them - Thane, Kalyan, Hatkanangale, Buldhana, Aurangabad and Maval.
In the metropolis, where Shiv Sena was born in 1966, the party lost Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central, but the party's Mumbai North West candidate retained the seat by a slim margin of 48 votes.
In 2019, the then undivided Shiv Sena in alliance with the BJP contested 23 Lok Sabha seats and won 18.However, following the split two years ago, the Shinde-led Sena contested only 15 seats following tussles with alliance partners BJP and Ajit Pawar's NCP.
It did not repeat its candidates in Ramtek, Yavatmal, Washim and replaced the Hingoli candidate. Shiv Sena announced its candidate for Nashik at the last minute and blamed its allies BJP and NCP for the delay.
Shinde blamed the opposition parties' continuous propaganda that the Constitution would be changed for the loss caused to Mahayuti.
“We failed to remove doubts among voters,” he said.Our loss also happened due to vote-bank politics."
The Chief Minister cited delays in announcing candidates on some seats for the failure in some constituencies, apparently referring to Nashik, where the Shiv Sena had fielded Hemant Godse despite opposition from the BJP and NCP.
Godse lost to Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Parag Waze.
Shinde's next challenge will be the crucial assembly elections later this year that will decide which faction is the "real" Shiv Sena following a split in the party in 2022 - the one controlled by him or his arch rival Uddhav Thackeray.
Of the 15 seats, Shiv Sena was in a direct contest with its rival Shiv Sena (UBT) on 13 and won six of them - Thane, Kalyan, Hatkanangale, Buldhana, Aurangabad and Maval.
In the metropolis, where Shiv Sena was born in 1966, the party lost Mumbai South and Mumbai South Central, but the party's Mumbai North West candidate retained the seat by a slim margin of 48 votes.
In 2019, the then undivided Shiv Sena in alliance with the BJP contested 23 Lok Sabha seats and won 18.However, following the split two years ago, the Shinde-led Sena contested only 15 seats following tussles with alliance partners BJP and Ajit Pawar's NCP.
It did not repeat its candidates in Ramtek, Yavatmal, Washim and replaced the Hingoli candidate. Shiv Sena announced its candidate for Nashik at the last minute and blamed its allies BJP and NCP for the delay.
Shinde blamed the opposition parties' continuous propaganda that the Constitution would be changed for the loss caused to Mahayuti.
“We failed to remove doubts among voters,” he said.Our loss also happened due to vote-bank politics."
The Chief Minister cited delays in announcing candidates on some seats for the failure in some constituencies, apparently referring to Nashik, where the Shiv Sena had fielded Hemant Godse despite opposition from the BJP and NCP.
Godse lost to Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Parag Waze.
