He will now square off with Sena (UBT) nominee Amol Kirtikar — a battle being termed as a showdown between the “real” and the “fake”, though both claim they are the real deal.
Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) believes Waikar’s candidature has made it easier for Kirtikar to win as it becomes a battle of “who is the more loyal Shiv Sainik”.
“It is a straight battle between which of the two Shiv Sainiks got scared of probes and fled, and which one stayed back and fought,” Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Vinod Ghosalkar told ThePrint.
The Shinde-led Shiv Sena, too, pitches the electoral contest as one between the “real and fake Shiv Sainik”. “The real Shiv Sainik stood with Hindutva for Balasaheb and the fake Shiv Sainik forgot Hindutva for the sake of power. The fight is between the kaccha Shiv Sainik and the pucca Shiv Sainik,” Jyoti Waghmare, spokesperson of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, said.
2 probes, different outcomes
Waikar, an MLA from Jogeshwari, which is in the Mumbai North West constituency, was booked by the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EoW) in September last year along with five others, including his wife, Manisha.
In January 2024, the ED raided premises linked to him. The EoW’s FIR was based on the complaint of BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, who alleged that Waikar had illegally obtained approval for the construction of a hotel on a plot that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had reserved for a garden.
In June 2023, after the Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government fell and the Shinde-led Mahayuti government came to power, the BMC, which had earlier given permission for the luxury hotel, reneged and denied consent.
However, earlier this year, amid talk of Waikar possibly defecting to the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the BMC submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying it was willing to reconsider Waikar’s case. Less than a month later, he joined the Shinde-led Shiv Sena.