Shiv Sena UBT leader and former minister Aaditya Thackeray has retained his Worli seat defeating Shiv Sena nominee and former Union minister Milind Deora and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena

As of 1:45 PM on Saturday, Aaditya Thackeray held a lead of 6,120 votes over Milind Deora, with 12 of the 17 counting rounds completed. Deora, a former Congress MP who joined Shinde’s Shiv Sena earlier this year, had briefly overtaken Thackeray during the initial rounds of counting before the latter regained his advantage.

While Aaditya Thackeray from the Uddhav camp entered the fray to lay claim to the seat once again, Milind Deora from the Shinde faction came to give a fight.  However, after a see-saw contest, Thackeray clinched the seat once again leaving Deora biting the dust.

In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly election, Aditya Thackeray polled over 69 per cent votes, defeating NCP's Suresh Mane.

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The young Thackeray defeated Milind Deora, a former Congress MP who jumped ship and joined the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena in January, with a margin of 8,801 votes. However, this is eight times less than the margin by which he has won in the 2019 Assembly elections.

Deora was chosen to contest from high-profile seat because Shinde did not want Thackeray to have a cakewalk, it is learnt. Thackeray's margin has come down drastically from 2019.

The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance banked on schemes like ‘Majhi Ladki Bahin’ to secure women’s support in Maharashtra assembly elections.

As of now, the counting of votes is underway, and the Worli constituency is among the most closely watched, given the intense rivalry between the Shiv Sena factions.