For nearly 20 years, Shivajinagar Assembly constituency has been a Shiv Sena stronghold, with Vinayak Nimhan winning the seat twice — in 2004 and 1999 — preceded by Shashikant Sutar in 1990 and 1994. With Nimhan moving to Congress, there is no strong candidate for Shiv Sena and BJP is trying to seize this opportunity and project corporator Vikas Mathkari as its likely candidate.

Things came to a head once Nimhan came out in the open in the first week of September and officially announced his entry into Congress. A staunch follower of State Industries Minister Narayan Rane, Nimhan’s plan of leaving Shiv Sena was on the cards for a while as he was one of the Shiv Sena MLAs who had quit Sena in 2005.

However, since he had become MLA on the Shiv Sena seat, he had retained his position. However, he resigned as MLA earlier this month.

The way things are stacked, Congress gain will translate into loss for NCP’s Anil Bhosale, whose hopes of contesting polls from Shivajinagar will take a blow. Bhosale will have to find a new constituency, though it is another matter whether NCP will cede to the Congress demand that the constituency be vacated for them. In the last Assembly polls, Nimhan had defeated Bhosale with a margin of about 38,000 votes.

“I have finally moved to Congress and I am very much optimistic that the party will give me a ticket, taking into consideration my strong presence in the constituency,” Nimhan said.

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