Eight seats in Maharashtra are among the seats going to polls on Friday in the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections. Among the seats eight, three will witness a direct contest between the two Shiv Sena factions -- Sena (UBT) led by former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and the Shiv Sena led by incumbent CM Eknath Shinde.
The Shiv Sena split: A look back
The undivided Shiv Sena had contested the last general elections in the state in alliance with the BJP. It split in 2022 after Shinde led a rebellion, sunk the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government and sided with the BJP to become the chief minister of Maharashtra.
Here are the things you need to know about Thursday's Sena vs Sena contest:
Maharashtra seats going to polls in the second phase: Voting will be held in Buldhana, Akola, Amravati, avatmal-Washim, Wardha, Nanded and Parbhani constituencies.
Seats where Shiv Sena factions will come face to face: Buldhana, Yavatmal-Washim and Hingoli constituencies.
Who vs who: In Buldhana, sitting Shiv Sena MP Prataprao Jadhav of the Shinde faction is pitted against Sena -UBT's Narendra Khedekar.
In Hingoli, the Shinde camp has fielded Baburao Kohalikar to take on UBT's Nagesh Patil Ashtikar.
In Yavatmal-Washim, Rajashri Patil of the Shinde group is taking on Sanjay Deshmukh of the Thackeray-led party.
Shinde camp's rejig: Rajashri Patil was allotted Yavatmal-Washim by dropping sitting MP Bhavana Gawli. Meanwhile, it was Rajashri's husband Hemant Patil who lost the Hingoli seat to Baburao Kohalikar.
Other candidates in fray: 21 in Buldhana, 17 in Yavatmal-Washim and 33 in Hingoli.
Maharashtra, which has 48 Lok Sabha seats, the second highest after Uttar Pradesh, will vote in five phases between April 19 and May 20.
