Mumbai, Nov 23 (IANS) Shiv Sena UBT leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray has retained his Worli seat defeating Shiv Sena nominee and former Union minister Milind Deora and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena candidate Sandip Deshpande.

Aaditya was locked in a triangular contest as both Shiv Sena and MNS made efforts to defeat him flagging his lack of performance as the legislator during 2019 and 2024.

For Aaditya, it is a crucial win as during the Lok Sabha election the lead from Worli to Shiv Sena nominee Arvind Sawant was just 6,000 votes. Therefore, Shiv Sena and MNS thought it would be an opportunity to corner Aaditya on his home pitch. However, both failed to checkmate him as Aaditya won with a comfortable margin of 8408 votes.

The Worli Assembly has a sizable Marathi-speaking population apart from Dalits, Muslims, and people from North Maharashtra. Aaditya relied on the Marathi Manoos appealing to them to vote for him to further increase the pace of development in Worli which has become a new centre for residential and commercial complexes. The constituency also houses the police personnel and currently, the redevelopment of BDD chawls is underway. The redevelopment was launched during the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi and it is in progress.

Aaditya urged the voters that he would make all efforts to complete the redevelopment of BDD chawls without delays and time escalation.

The Worli area is known as Shiv Sena's stronghold. Shiv Sena corporators were elected from all the wards of Worli division in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation polls. Despite a split in the Shiv Sena in June 2022, the traditional Shiv Sainiks remained with the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and worked hard for Aaditya’s victory.

On its part, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s move to field a non-Marathi candidate seems to have gone against it. Although Milind Deora is a known face as he was elected to Lok Sabha from south Mumbai, he could not succeed in appealing the Marathi Manoos despite Chief Minister Eknath Shinde reiterating that his party is a real Shiv Sena which is working on the thoughts of party founder Balasaheb Thackeray and it is committed to protect the interests of the Marathi Manoos.

Similarly, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS attempted to lure the Marathi Manoos to checkmate Aaditya but failed to create magic. Raj Thackeray’s appeals for change failed to get a positive response from the voters.