Shiv Sena rebel sitting Member of Parliament Anand Paranjpe has quit the party to join NCP for contesting Lok Sabha election from Kalyan. The party has fielded Shrikant Shinde son of MLA Eknath Shinde. The district president Gopal Landge and his group are upset with this decision which might affect the party’s poll prospects. The MNS has fielded Raju Patil but the main competition is between Shiv Sena and MNS.
Anand Paranjpe contested the 2009 Lok Sabha election through the Shiv Sena ticket and defeated NCP candidate Vasant Davkhare and MNS candidate Vaishali Darekar. Paranjpe had served the Shiv Sena for four years and later quit the party. He joined NCP and received a ticket from the party for contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha election. Party workers received an instruction from Matoshree to teach a lesson to Anand Paranjpe for rebelling against the party.
Groupism is prevalent inside the Shiv Sena which will adversely affect the party’s performance in the forthcoming election. Gopal Landge has been working as the Kalyan District President from last four years. Under his leadership the Shiv Sena was re-elected in the Kalyan Dombivali Municipal Corporation. After Paranjpe quit the party, Landge started attending minor events in the constituency. By nominating Shrikant Shinde, Shiv Sena will make every effort to defeat the rebel NCP candidate Anand Paranjpe.
After the demise of MP Prakash Paranjpe, Shiv Sena issued a ticket to his son Anand Paranjpe. People were expecting that a renowned candidate will be issued tickets to contest the 2009 Lok Sabha election from Kalyan constituency. However, the party issued ticket to Anand Paranjpe.
The candidature of standing MP Anand Paranjpe was not opposed by any supporter. A conflict existed between Eknath Shinde and Anand Paranjpe as the latter quit the party and joined NCP. After quitting Sena Paranjpe had mentioned in an interview that Shiv Sena leader used to criticize him and say that nobody recognises him. As a result of this, Paranjpe quit the party due the prevalence of infighting in it. Many times he tried to contact Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray but he refused to meet him.
Six assembly seats are situated in the Thane constituency out of which BJP have won two seats while Shiv Sena and NCP have bagged one seat each. From Ambernath, Balaji Kinikar (Shiv Sena), Ulhasnagar- Kumar Ailani (BJP), Kalyan (E), Ganpat Gaikwad (Independent), Dombivli, Ravindra Chavan (BJP), Kalyan ruling area, Ramesh Patil (MNS), Mumbra Kalwa, Jitendra Ahwad (NCP) are the MLAs from this constituency.
Statistics of 2009 Lok Sabha election
Anand Paranjpe (Shiv Sena) – 2,12,476
Vaishali Darekar (MNS) – 12,000
Vasant Davkhare (NCP) – 1,78,274
Parvez Khan
