Lok Sabha elections 2024: Sparks fly in Kalyan as Maharashtra CM’s son made candidate

MP Shrikant Shinde. File Photo

Conflict erupted in the Kalyan Lok Sabha constituency, after a group of Bharatiya Janta Party workers staged a protest on Friday night, opposing the declaration of Shrikant Shinde, son of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, as the candidate for the upcoming elections.

The workers, who support BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, declared that they would not support the CM's son, even as Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis officially announced the younger Shinde's candidature. As soon as reports about Shrikant's nomination started on Friday, a group of Gaikwad's followers and BJP workers from Kalyan East held a meeting and decided that they would not support Shrikant, even if he gets a ticket.

Meanwhile, while speaking to the media, Shrikant said, "There were some tigers who were going to fight from the Kalyan constituency. People like Aditya Thackeray and Varun Desai had thrown down challenges. Where are they now? They have ran away and made a local karyakarta the candidate. We have done development work here. People are aware about our work in the constituency and they will do justice to us."

In the past few days, many of the existing MPs from the Eknath Shinde group were denied the Lok Sabha ticket over a BJP candidate. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena (UBT faction) chief Uddhav Thackeray has declared Vaishali Darekar as the candidate from Kalyan. Shrikant, however, was already seen visiting businessmen, community leaders and activists from the region.