Shiv Sena (UBT) Declares 4 More Nominees; Fields Ex-MNS Leader Vaishali Darekar-Rane From Kalyan

The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday declared four more candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, fielding Vaishali Darekar-Rane from the high-profile Kalyan constituency, currently represented by state Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's son Shrikant Shinde.

With this, the Uddhav Thackeray-led party has so far declared nominees for 21 seats in Maharashtra, which will vote in five phases starting April 19.

Addressing a news conference, Thackeray also declared the candidature of Satyajit Patil, Bharti Kamdi and Karan Pawar from Hatkanangale, Palghar, and Jalgaon constituencies, respectively.

Thackeray said if Maha Vika Aghadi (MVA) ally Congress is not keen on contesting the Mumbai North constituency, then his party will field a candidate from that seat.

The BJP has fielded Union minister Piyush Goyal from Mumbai North constituency. The Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde has not yet opened its cards on the Kalyan seat.

Notably, Darekar-Rane had contested from the Kalyan seat on the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) ticket against Shiv Sena's Anand Paranjape in the 2009 elections. She had finished third by bagging 1.02 lakh votes.

Hatkanangale constituency in western Maharashtra was won by Dhairyasheel Mane of Shiv Sena (undivided) in the previous elections.

Jalgaon seat is represented by Unmesh Patil of BJP, who on Wednesday crossed over to Shiv Sena (UBT) after being denied a ticket by his parent party for the upcoming contest.

Palghar seat is currently represented by undivided Shiv Sena's Rajendra Gavit.