Major Setback for Uddhav Thackeray: 50 Former Corporators Switch to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena

In the 2024 assembly elections, Uddhav Thackeray suffered a significant defeat, while Eknath Shinde emerged victorious, sparking ongoing debates in political circles about the true leadership of Shiv Sena. Since the elections, Thackeray's faction has struggled with continuous defections. While Thackeray has ramped up preparations for the upcoming Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections, his faction has seen several prominent leaders, corporators, and activists leaving, making the upcoming elections even more challenging for him.

Ravindra Dhangekar, former MLA from Pune's Kasba Peth, recently joined Shinde's Shiv Sena after quitting Congress, delivering a major blow to the Congress party. Prior to this, former Kurla corporator Dr. Anuradha Pednekar also switched to Shinde’s faction. To date, around 50 former corporators from the Thackeray faction have defected to Shinde’s Shiv Sena. In the Versova constituency, Rajoo Pednekar and Rajul Patel were key contenders, but both were sidelined by Uddhav Thackeray in favor of a minority candidate. 

Rajoo Pednekar later rebelled and joined Shinde’s faction in January. In the last 15 days, Jitendra Janawale, the division head from Bandra, also left Thackeray's faction for Shinde’s. Along with him, former corporators Rajoo Pednekar and Sanjay Pawar have also followed suit. Dr. Anuradha Pednekar from Kurla also joined Shinde’s faction recently. Alongside these defections, key figures including branch heads, sub-division heads, deputy branch heads, group leaders, North Indian workers, the women’s wing, youth wing, and members of the Warakari and Muslim communities joined the event, where Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde warmly welcomed them into his fold.