A Sena bastion, will party be able to retain Maval for fourth time

Back in 2019, then in the Opposition, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) fielded Ajit Pawar’s son Parth to break the jinx and wrest the Maval Lok Sabha constituency from the Shiv Sena, which has its control over the seat ever since the constituency was created following delimitation in 2008.

Its first member of parliament (MP) was Gajanan Babar of Shiv Sena and is currently represented by Shrirang Barne, also of faction led by chief minister Eknath Shinde.

This time, with the Sena split after Shinde’s revolt, the contest is most likely to be between nominees of these two parties.

From the Shinde-led Sena, Barne is keen to contest polls once again while in the rival camp Sanjog Waghere is a likely candidate of Shiv Sena (UBT) even as the latter has not officially announced its candidate.

Waghere, who served as mayor of Pimpri-Chinchwad and was president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the city, recently joined Shiv Sena (UBT) in Uddhav Thackeray’s presence and is likely to be nominated as the party’s candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections from the Maval constituency.

During the recently held seat-sharing talks, Sena managed to convince its ally NCP not to stake a claim on Maval citing that the seat has been Sena’s stronghold.

“The constituency will remain with the Sena and the seating MP Barne will be our candidate,” said Maharashtra industry minister and Sena leader Uday Samant.

The Maval constituency, which is going to the polls on May 13, is spread over Pune and Raigad districts with its demography divided into urban, rural agriculture and industrial workers. Major industrial units falling under Maval Talegaon are in Talegaon.

While Maval, Chinchwad and Pimpri are from Pune district; Panvel, Karjat and Uran fall under Raigad.

Besides the Sena and the NCP, Shetkari Kamgar Party (Peasants and Workers Party of India) also exerts some influence in the constituency.