Ramesh Singh Thakur, who had won Kandivli East for the Congress in 2009, and shifted to the BJP to contest from Malad in 2019, is said to be on his way back to the party he represented once. If he gets inducted into the Congress, he is likely to be a contestant from Kandivli East where BJP’s Atul Bhatkhalkar has been a sitting MLA since 2014. In his first term, Bhatkhalkar had beaten Thakur.

It is learnt from Congress insiders that Thakur doesn’t see an opportunity coming from the BJP to contest from any segment that is dominated by the North Indian voters. Shiv Sena (Shinde) and BJP are locked in a tussle for sharing constituencies such as Andheri East, Goregaon, Dindoshi, Kalina and Versova. In 2019, Thakur was shifted to Malad West because BJP had a sitting MLA in Kandivli. Congress’ Aslam Sheikh had beaten Thakur in Malad West by over 10,000 votes.