Sena vs Sena: Shinde faction defeats Uddhav's outfit in 36 constituencies

The Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde knocked out rival Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray in 36 constituencies in Maharashtra polls, putting to rest the debate over which is the real party founded by the late Bal Thackeray.

Shinde's Sena, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti alliance, won 57 of the 81 seats it contested. Sena (UBT), a partner in the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, managed to bag only 20 despite fielding 95 candidates. In 14 seats, it defeated Shiv Sena candidates.

In one of his biggest political gambles, Shinde rebelled against Uddhav in June 2022 and aligned with the BJP along with his backers to become the chief minister. The move split the Sena and sparked almost daily bickerings between the two factions.

Subsequently, Shinde got the party name and its bow-and-arrow' symbol from the Election Commission.

Shinde had retained most of the sitting MLAs, who had chosen to be with him when he led the rebellion two years ago. And they delivered for him on Saturday when the votes were counted.

Chandrakant Sonawane who replaced his wife and sitting MLA Lata Sonawane defeated Prabhakar Sonawane of Sena UBT in Chopda.

Kishore Patil of Shiv Sena won against Vaishali Suryavanshi in Pachora, while Sanjay Gaikwad defeated Jayshree Shelke in Buldhana.

Ashish Jaiswal beat Vishal Barbate in Ramtek seat. His party colleague Sanjana Jadhav trounced Udaysing Rajput in Kannad, while Sanjay Bangar emerged victorious against Santosh Tarfe in Kalamnuri.

Minister Abdul Sattar defeated Suresh Bankar in Sillod. Pradeep Jaiswal, who fought against Balasaheb Thorat, was the winner in Aurangabad Central.

Sanjay Shirsat beat Raju Shinde in Aurangabad West seat, while Vilas Bhumre came on top in his fight against Dattatrey Gorde in Paithan.

In Vaijapur, Ramesh Bornare was the top vote-getter, relegating Dinesh Pardeshi to the second position.

Ganesh Dhatrak was bested by Suhas Kande in Nandgaon. Dada Bhuse defeated Prashant Hiray in Malegaon outer.

In the tribal-dominated Palghar constituency, Rajendra Gavit beat Jayendra Dubla, while Vilas Tare defeated Vishwas Valvi in Boisar.

In Bhiwandi rural of Thane district, where Eknath Shinde holds sway, Shantaram More of his party defeated Uddhav's man Mahadev Ghatal.

Vishwas Bhoir vanquished Sachin Basare in Kalyan West, while Pratap Sarnaik defeated Naresh Manera in Ovla Majiwada in Thane city.

In Ambernath, Balaji Kinikar was the winner against Rajendra Wankhede.

Rajesh More defeated Subhash Bhoir in Kalyan Rural. Shinde himself registered a massive victory in his Kopri-Pachpakhadi, defeating Kedar Dighe with a margin of 1.2 lakh votes.

Prakash Surve trounced Udesh Patekar In Magathane, while Ashok Patil vanquished Ramesh Korgaonkar in Bhandup West.

Murji Patel, who had earlier lost to Rutuja Latke in Andheri East, bounced back as the winner. Tukaram Kate defeated Prakash Phaterpekar in Chembur. Both Latke and Phatarpekar were sitting MLAs who had stayed with Uddhav.

In Kurla, Mangesh Kudalkar beat Pravina Morajkar, while Mahendra Thorve defeated Nitin Sawant in Karjat.

Bharat Gogawale got more votes than Snehal Jagtap to bag the Mahad seat. In Nevasa, Vithal Langhe defeated Yashwant Gadakh, the sitting MLA. Shambhuraj Desai trounced Bhanupratap Kadam in Patan.

In coastal Dapoli, Yogesh Kadam defeated Sanjay Kadam.

Minister Uday Samant won against Bal Mane in Ratnagiri, while Kiran Samant beat sitting MLA Rajan Salvi in Rajapur.

Nilesh Rane, who switched from BJP to Shiv Sena before the polls, defeated sitting MLA Vaibhav Naik in Kudal. In Sawantwadi near Goa, Deepak Kesarkar got the best of Rajan Teli. Prakash Abitkar defeated KP Patil in Radhanagari.

The Sena (UBT) came on top in fights against Shiv Sena in 14 seats.

In Mehkar, Rambhau Kharat defeated Shiv Sena's Sanjay Bhaskar Raymulkar, while Nitin Bhikanrao Deshmukh was the winner in Balapur. Shiv Sena's Bhagwan Siraskar came third.

In Daryapur, Gajanan Lawate of Sena (UBT) defeated Abhijit Adsuk of the rival Sena, while Rahul Patil trounced Anand Bharose in Parbhani.

Sunil Raut defeated Suvarna Karanje in Vikhroli and his Sena (UBT) colleague Anant Nar was the winner in Jogeshwari West after a face-off with Manisha Waikar.

Sunil Prabhu defeated Sanjay Nirupam in Dindoshi. Mahesh Sawant beat Sada Sarvankar in Mahim.

Uddhav's son and former state minister Aaditya Thackeray retained his Worli seat by defeating Milind Deora, who recently joined the Shiv Sena from Congress.

Manoj Jamsutkar defeated Yamini Jadhav in Byculla, while Pravin Swami got more votes than Dnyanraj Chougule in Umarga to emerge as the winner.

Kailash Ghadge Patil defeated Ajit Pingale in Osmanabad. In Barshi, Dilip Sopal trounced Rajendra Raut, while Bhaskar Jadhav vanquished Rajesh Bendal in Guhagar.

The vote share of the Sena (UBT) was 9.96 per cent compared to Shiv Sena's 12.38 per cent.

The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance on Saturday retained power in Maharashtra, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats, as the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi's dream of wresting power fizzled, with the opposition combine managing to garner just 46 seats.

The Election Commission announced that the BJP has won 132 seats, the Shiv Sena won 57, while the NCP got 41 seats.

In the MVA, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) candidates won 10 seats, Congress won 16, while Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) won 20 seats.