In the fight for Vikhroli, the Shiv Sena would be desperate not only to regain its one-time fortress, but also score a moral victory against the MNS in a constituency where the anti-North Indian wave began last year with a Raj Thackeray speech.

Vikhroli, a suburb in Northeast Mumbai with large pockets of Marathi-speaking voters, includes Tagore Nagar, Kannamwar Nagar, Kanjurmarg (East) and parts of Vikhroli West. It was here that Raj Thackeray started a campaign against North Indians in February 2008, allowing the MNS to wrest the Shiv Sena’s main plank, the cause of Marathi-speaking sons of the soil.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the MNS fielded former Shiv Sainik Shishir Shinde who led by 5,000 votes in this Assembly segment of Mumbai Northeast.

The Sena’s keenness to win back the stronghold was clear when executive president Uddhav Thackeray chose to start his election campaign with a rally in Vikhroli. The Sena has fielded old warhorse Datta Dalvi, a former Mumbai mayor and a Vikhroli resident, against MNS corporator Mangesh Sangle.

Dalvi, a three-time corporator from Vikhroli, is well versed with the Shiv Sena’s brand of politics. He had been denied a ticket to the municipal elections of 2007 because of his closeness to Narayan Rane.

“Even after the formation of the MNS, we had a lead of 15,000 in the corporation elections,” says Dalvi. “But the Lok Sabha election was fought on a different issue.”

The NCP is banking on the fight between the Sena and the MNS and was quick to field Pallavi Patil, wife of Sanjay Patil, MP from Mumbai Northeast. Cricketer-turned-politician Vinod Kambli is also in fray.

... contd.