Thane (Maharashtra): Shiv Sena's Naresh Mhaske won from the Thane Lok Sabha seat by a margin of 217011 votes and defeated sitting MP and his opponent and Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Rajan Baburao Vichare.
According to the data provided by Election Commission of India (ECI), Mhaske, a former Thane mayor, polled over 734231 votes while Vichare managed to bag 517220 votes.
The win in Thane would make Maharashtra Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde happy as it is his home ground and holds significant prestige. Rajan Vichare had won as an undivided Shiv Sena nominee in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Thane is a constituency of immense importance for Maharashtra's Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. He had to make significant efforts to ensure that this constituency did not go to the BJP in the seat-sharing arrangement. Thane is a Lok Sabha constituency located to the northwest of Maharashtra. It is close to Mumbai and is part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
Thane is often referred to as 'Mumbai's Elder Sister'. There was a time when Thane Lok Sabha was part of the Colaba Lok Sabha constituency. Later, it became an independent seat. Subsequently, it became a stronghold of the BJP and Shiv Sena for many years. In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the NCP captured the seat. After BJP's Ram Kapse in 1989 and 1991, Shiv Sena's late Prakash Paranjape won consecutively four times from 1996 to 2004. In 2008, his son Anand Paranjape won the seat for Shiv Sena. In 2009, NCP's Sanjeev Naik emerged victorious.
Rajan Vichare is a two-time MP, having won in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The total number of registered voters in the Thane constituency in 2024 polls was 2507372 and the seat saw a voting turnout of 52.09 % (1306194 votes polled), according to the Election Commission’s data released on May 25, 2024. The seat went to polls in phase 5 on May 20, 2024.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Rajan Vichare of undivided Shiv Sena won from Thane constituency, polling 740969 votes, comprising 63.30 % of the total number of votes polled. Rajan Vichare defeated undivided NCP candidate Anand Prakash Paranjpe by a margin of 412145 votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls too, it was Rajan Vichare of the undivided Shin Sena, who had emerged triumphant. He had polled 595364 votes (56.48 %) and defeated undivided NCP candidate Sanjeev Ganesh Naik by a margin of 281299 votes.
