Sindhudurg district in the Konkan region, along the western coast of Maharashtra, has three assembly constituencies―Kankavli, Kudal and Sawantwadi. In the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls, in accordance with the seat-sharing programme, the BJP was supposed to contest the Kankavli seat while Kudal and Sawantwadi belonged to Shiv Sena. However, an unexpected bombshell dropped. The BJP announced that Nitesh Rane, son of Thackerays' political bete noire Narayan Rane, will contest from Kankavli While this was a largely distasteful prospect for many BJP leaders, it was especially unappealing for Sena. Ever since Nitesh's father Narayan Rane quit Sena in 2005, a feud had taken root.
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The decision did not sit well with the Sena. They hit back, announcing a ticket to Satish Sawant, once a close aide of Narayan Rane, to contest against Nitesh from Kankavli. The dispute soon snowballed, with an irked BJP announcing their intention to support two independents from the Sena seats of Kudal and Sawantwadi.
Electorally, the Sena and BJP are engaged in friendly fights or facing rebel menace in at least six constituencies—Kudal, Kankavli, Sawantwadi, Kalyan West, Kalyan East and Boisar. In Kalyan West, BJP MLA Narendra Pawar, who lost out on his constituency after it went to the Sena in the seat-sharing agreement, will contest as a rebel amid reported discontent in the BJP base. In Kalyan East, the situation is reversed, with Sena rebel Dhananjay Bhodare competing against BJP’s Ganpat Gaikwad.
In Sindhudurg, the flashpoint of the Sena-BJP strife, the candidates have won as expected. But, the votes garnered by the rivals bear a mention.In Sawantwadi, Shiv Sena's Kesarkar leads with 47,713 votes compared to independent Rajan Krishna Teli's 34,630. In Kankavli, BJP's Nitesh Rane leads with 40,602 votes compared to Shiv Sena's Satish Sawant's 23,774. In Kudal, Shiv Sena's Naik Vaibhav narrowly leads with 28,706 votes compared to independent Ranjit Desai's 24,175.
