The by-election to the Andheri (East) Assembly seat on November 3 is going to be a ‘Maha Sangram’ of sorts as both the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena and rival Eknath Shinde camp-BJP alliance will be pitted against each other.
The Thackeray camp is expected to field Sena MLA the late Ramesh Latke's spouse Rutuja as it heavily depends on the sympathy factor. Latke died of heart attack while on a trip to Dubai in May.
For the Shinde camp, which has been making rapid strides to claim legitimacy to carry on the legacy of Shiv Sena founder the late Bal Thackery, the Andheri (East) may not give any upmanship as the alliance seems to have already zeroed in on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) former corporator Murji Patel.
