Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde on Saturday said Uddhav Thackeray has now developed an allergy to the saffron colour. Speaking at a rally in Mumbai South Lok Sabha constituency on the last day of campaigning, Mr. Shinde sought votes for his candidate to give the third prime ministerial term to Narendra Modi.
Shiv Sena led by Mr. Shinde has fielded sitting MLA from Byculla assembly constituency as Lok Sabha candidate from the Mumbai South seat, where the voter list includes India’s top industrialists. Urging the voters to vote for Ms. Jadhav, the Maharashtra CM said, “This election is about ensuring India’s future. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has increased India’s respect worldover in the last 10 years. We have to make him the PM again. Therefore vote for Yamini Jadhav.”
The Mumbai South constituency has a significant Muslim population, which is decisive in two assembly segments — Mumbadevi and Byculla. As per the 2011 census, the constituency has more than 21 per cent Muslim voters. Mr. Shinde also said that the NDA government does not discriminate against people on the basis of their religion. On the other hand, the INDIA bloc is indulging in appeasement politics to win the election. “We treat everyone as equals. But in the Shiv Sena (UBT) rallies, we see Pakistan’s flags,” he said.
Further targeting Uddhav Thackeray, Mr. Shinde said, “He has abandoned Balasaheb Thackeray’s ideology and joined hands with the Congress. Now he has an allergy to the saffron flag, which was Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s flag, Lord Ram’s flag and varkari’s (devotees of Lord Vithhal) flag.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Arvind Sawant is seeking a third term from the Mumbai South seat. He had defeated Congress’s Milind Deora in 2014 with the margin of over 1.28 lakh votes. His lead reduced in 2019, but it remained over one lakh votes. However, this time he is facing a major challenge because of the changed political equations despite the fact that Ms. Jadhav is considered to be a lightweight candidate and is not known so much outside her Byculla assembly segment.
Mumbai South consists of six assembly segments — Worli, Shivadi, Byculla, Malabar Hill, Mumba Devi and Colaba. Aaditya Thackeray is the sitting MLA from Worli. However in 2019, Mr. Sawant got the biggest lead of 59,000 votes from the Malabar Hill assembly segment. His biggest deficit was 35,000 votes from Mumba Devi assembly segment, which has the highest Muslim population. This time around, Mr. Sawant is expected to increase his vote share significantly in Mumba Devi and trail in Malabar Hill because of the changed political equations.
Worli and Shivadi assembly segments are dominated by Marathi voters. Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s support can also help Ms. Jadhav to dent Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Marathi votes in these two assembly segments.
