Sena renominates Phatak in Thane, no deal with BVA

Manoj Badgeri and Chaitanya MarpakwarThane/Mumbai: Shiv Sena’s Ravindra Phatak as the Mahayuti candidate and NCP (SP)’s Abhijit Pawar of MVA on Monday filed their nominations for the Thane and Palghar local authorities’ constituency election to the legislative council.Last week, there had been speculation that the Shinde Sena had reached out to Bahujan Vikas Aghadi’s (BVA) former MLA Kshitij Thakur with the offer of the Thane MLC seat provided the BVA merged with Sena. BVA chief Hitendra Thakur had fuelled the speculation by saying “Aage aage dekho hota hai kya” (See what happens in the days to come).” However, the deal reportedly did not work out, and Sena decided to renominate Phatak.Observers said the hard bargaining by Dy CM Shinde for the seat in his stronghold yielded results, considering the local BJP unit was pushing for the seat after losing the Thane Lok Sabha seat to Sena in 2024.