Aaditya Thackeray, first member his family to take the poll plunge, is leading from Worli in the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly election with over 60,000 votes, Election Commission said.
He was pitted against NCP’s nominee Suresh Mane, a Dalit leader.
The seat is considered a Shiv Sena bastion and as Huffpost India’s Pavan Dahat wrote, “Thackeray will likely have his first election victory handed to him on a platter”.
The constituency was represented by Sena leader Datta Nalawade from 1990 to 2004. But, in 2009, Sachin Ahir, then in the NCP, wrested the seat due to vote split by the MNS, as PTI points out.
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The seat was retained by Sena’s Sunil Shinde in 2014. Even in 2014 and this year’s Lok Sabha polls, Sena’s Arvind Sawant won comfortably from the Worli parliamentary constituency.
Pavan Dahat also wrote about how Thackeray must save the Shiv Sena from the BJP:
The Shiv Sena has been in an uncomfortable alliance with the BJP for over 29 years now. With the 2019 Maharashtra state elections around the corner, Thackeray must somehow rescue the fading Shiv Sena from dissolving into its much bigger, better-financed alliance partner which has made steady inroads into the Shiv Sena’s support base.
Reports (see here and here) suggest that Shiv Sena is likely to demand that Thackeray be made the deputy chief minister. Sena will not accept a Thackeray becoming a mere minister in the BJP-led government, The Economic Times said.
When asked if it is premature to project Aaditya as a possible Chief Minister or Deputy, Shiv Sena spokesperson Anil Parab told Pavan Dahat that “I don’t think it is premature. Aaditya Thackeray is a good youth leader. He is moving around Maharashtra and people are liking him.”
When asked about the same, Thackeray told Dahat, “I have never projected myself, neither has anyone officially from the party. Everyone has the right to voice their aspirations for the party or for me and that’s their love but for me, as I said I am not running behind any post, because that will come whenever the people think it’s the right time for me to get the post.”
“Primarily I am enjoying the whole process of meeting people, helping them, trying to get things done in the state.”
Uddhav Thackeray has also said that a politician doesn’t get the top job after taking “the first step in politics”.
(With PTI inputs)