The September 10 polls of the Mumbai University senate — the first since the party split last year — will be a litmus test for Yuva Sena chief and Shiv Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray who will lead the effort.
According to sources, Shiv Sena UBT has decided to face the election alone and not join hands with other partners in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). In the last senate election, all 10 seats were won by Shiv Sena. As per the source in Yuva Sena, Aaditya Thackeray is confident of winning despite a split in the party and young leaders like Ameya Ghole and Rahul Kanal — once close to the Thackeray scion — joining the Eknath Shinde camp.
According to the notification of Mumbai University, August 18 will be the last day to submit the nomination form. As per the latest data, approximately 92,000 voters will participate in this election.
Meanwhile, alliance partner Youth Congress is yet to get clearance from the state high command on the election. The Youth Congress leaders responsible for the election have expressed confidence that if the state high command gives the green signal to go solo, they will put up a good show.
Speaking with local media, MLA and Youth Congress Mumbai chief Zeeshan Siddiqui said: “We are waiting for the state high command’s order. We are ready to contest solo and if they decide that we should contest this election in an alliance, we are open for that.”
According to highly placed sources in Shiv Sena (Shinde) camp, the party’s youth wing is unlikely to contest this senate election but they may help other parties.
Senate election is a game of preferential voting where parties who register the highest number of voters have a chance to win maximum seats. The reason behind Shinde faction’s decision is that most of their young leaders were with Uddhav Thackeray before the split last year. The process of registration for this election started last year. Hence, the leaders who jumped from Uddhav Thackeray to Shinde could not complete the registration process. In such a situation, the party may help other student organisations who will be contesting the election. The final call will be taken by Dr Shrikant Shinde, Member of Parliament and head of Youth Wing of Shiv Sena (Shinde).
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