MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena marked the historical victory in the Dadra Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha bypolls by winning the seat by 51000 votes against the BJP candidate. This is the first major win of Shiv Sena outside Maharashtra.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut tweeted, “First step outside Maharashtra, a giant leap towards Delhi via Dadra Nagar Haveli.”
Shiv Sena's Kalaben Delkar won by 51,269 votes against the BJP candidate Mahesh Gavit. Dadra Nagar Haveli Lok Sabha bypoll was necessitated by the death of independent Lok Sabha MP Mohan Delkar. Shiv Sena fielded his widow Kalaben, who bagged 1,18,035 votes aganst her closest rival Gavit, who got 66,766 votes. In 2019, Mohan Delkar won this same seat by 9,001 votes against the BJP candidate Natubhai Patel.
Shiv Sena's Pawan Kumar Pandey won from Akbarpur assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh in 1991 when Ram Mandir movement was at its nadir.
Sachin Parab, a senior journalist who closely follow the Shiv Sena and wrote books on Uddhav Thackeray’s grandfather Prabodhankar Thackeray said that Dadra Nagar Haveli victory of Shiv Sena will give them more power and voice to attack to BJP in the coming days. He said the union territory of Dadra Nagar Haveli is part of Gujarat with 30 per cent Marathi population. “Shiv Sena has shown that they can fight and defeat the BJP in their territory also. So there will be more political slugfest between Uddhav Thackeray and Narendra Modi- Amit Shah in future. This victory has also catapulted Uddhav Thackeray as centre politics and Sanjay Raut has also hinted in that direction as well,” Parab said.
He said though Bal Thackeray created Shiv Sena’s base in Dadra Nagar Haveli, he could not reap success there -- something his son Uddhav Thackeray has now succeeded in. “Besides, Dadra Nagar Haveli and Deglu victory has also consolidated the position of Maha Vikas Aghadi. They will strongly fight with BJP and win the seats. This defeat is a major setback to BJP. The morale of their workers will get down in Dadra Nagar Haveli as well in Maharashtra,” Parab added.