Due to rebellion and disagreements among the MahaYuti partners, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde faces a significant challenge in trying to strengthen the Shiv Sena’s presence in his home district of Thane and the nearby tribal-dominated Palghar district, even as MahaYuti urges voters to re-elect the grand alliance in order to accelerate Maharashtra’s development.

Those who are still fighting have made the battle more difficult for the MahaYuti, notwithstanding the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ partial success in appeasing the rebels.

Palghar has six assembly seats, compared to 18 in Thane district. Of the four seats from these two districts, the BJP won the seat of Palghar in the Lok Sabha elections, while the Shiv Sena won Thane and Kalyan.

After the split, Shiv Sena leader and chief minister Eknath Shinde outwitted the Uddhav Thackeray-led group to strengthen its hold on Thane, which has historically been a Shiv Sena stronghold. The Thane district, which is a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, has also seen growth for the BJP throughout the years.

The BJP is reclaiming its big brother position by running for nine of the 18 seats, while the Shiv Sena is running for six of them.

After his two reliable comrades, Vijay Nahata and Vijay Chougule, broke with the party line and joined the battle from the Belapur and Airoli seats, respectively, Shinde’s concerns are far from over. In the Belapur seat, Nahata is still running as an independent against the BJP’s incumbent lawmaker and candidate Manda Mhatre, despite Shinde disowning him and encouraging party members to fight for MahaYuti. Even though Shinde sent party MP Naresh Mhaske to mediate between the BJP and NCP, Nahata manages to win over some party members, making the conflict acrimonious. In addition, Sandeep Naik, a former lawmaker, has been nominated by the NCP SP to succeed Mhatre and Nahata. Since the party did not take his candidacy into consideration, Naik, the BJP’s Navi Mumbai district unit, left the party and joined the NCP-SP.

Another close friend of Shinde, Vijay Chougule, is running as an independent in the nearby Airoli seat against MK Madhavi, the candidate of the Shiv Sena UBT, and Ganesh Naik, the BJP’s nominee and former minister. In the past, Naik has publicly criticized Shinde.

Mahesh Gaikwad, a close colleague of Shinde’s, also defected from the party and is running as an independent from Kalyan East against Sulabha Gaikwad, the wife of the party’s incumbent lawmaker, Ganpat Gaikwad. By the way, Gaikwad is incarcerated at the moment for sacking Mahesh Gaikwad over personal rivalry. Even though Shinde and his son Shrikant Shinde, a Kalyan MP, have urged party members to put in extra effort to help Sulabha Gaikwad win, Mahesh Gaikwad could end up becoming a spoiler by reducing the MahaYuti’s support. Dhananjay Borade, the Shiv Sena’s candidate for UBT, is doing all in his power to exploit the MahaYuti’s division in order to win.

The conflict in Kalyan West has become more personal due to the growing distance between Shiv Sena MP Shrikant Shinde and MNS candidate Raju Patil. While Shiv Sena UBT has renominated Subhash Bhoir, who lost to Raju Patil in the 2019 elections, Shiv Sena has put forth Rajesh More. Given that Raj Thackeray, the leader of his party, had backed Shrikant Shinde in the Lok Sabha elections, Raju Patil had anticipated that the Shiv Sena would back him rather than run for office. That didn’t happen, however, since Raju Patil is working tirelessly to defeat the Shiv Sena candidate. In order to prevail there, the Shinde group has been compelled to mobilize all of its assets, including its ranks.

After the BJP won the seat during the seat-sharing deal, independent Geeta Jain, who did all in her power to get a Shiv Sena ticket, is running as an independent once again in Mira Bhayander. Narendra Mehta, who lost to the Jain in the 2019 elections, is the candidate the BJP is running. Mehta is, incidentally, a close confidante of Devendra Fadnavis, the Deputy Chief Minister. In an attempt to capitalize on the split of votes between Mehta and Jain, Congress nominated former lawmaker Muzaffar Hussain. Shinde sees it as a catch-22 position since backing the Jain might hurt the BJP’s chances of winning the election, which would then help the Congress under Maha Yuti.

Shinde recruited Rajendra Gavit, a former MP who had rejoined the BJP before the general elections, to serve in the Palghar seat. Shinde’s problems were exacerbated by Shiv Sena’s incumbent lawmaker, Shrinivas Vanga, who disappeared for a few hours because he was unhappy with the party’s choice. Vanga chose to follow the party line nevertheless, when CM promised to nominate him to the state council.

The BJP proved to be a big brother by winning eight seats in the 2019 assembly elections, while the Shiv Sena took home six seats in the Thane and Palghar districts. NCP won three, Bahujan Vikas Aghadi won three, MNS won one, CPM won one, Samajwadi Party won one, and an independent won one in the same elections.

All six lawmakers joined Shinde after the split, while two of the three MLAs in the NCP joined Sharad Pawar and one joined Ajit Pawar.