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Writer's pictureAbhijit Mulye

Litmus Test for Women’s Voice

Shaina NC, the candidate from Mumbadevi assembly constituency for the Shiv Sena under CM Eknath Shinde has filed a complaint with the police against Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Arvind Sawant on Friday for his derogatory remarks against her depicting women as a commodity. She had been raising voice for women’s rights and had been vocal for increasing women’s participation in male dominated active politics.

Shaina comes from a prominent family. Her father, Nana Chudasama, was a well-known businessman and former Sheriff of Mumbai. He was also known as a philanthropist and was famous for his witty one-liners on current affairs. Shaina, a fashion designer by profession, has inherited most of his qualities that has kept her afloat in the politics for around two decades.


Shaina ventured into politics for the first time in 2004, by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She contested the assembly elections that year unsuccessfully and was given the responsibility of the then newly formed Health and Cultural Cell in the state party unit. In 2007 she was given the responsibility as party spokesperson in its Mumbai unit. The next year she was elevated as the state spokesperson. Contrary to expectations, he wasn’t given the ticket in 2009 assembly elections or any other elections though she expressed her desire to contest the elections several times at various levels.


However, she remained the party’s primary connect to the world of celebrities from Bollywood, the fashion world and even from the industry. He photographs were prominently displayed a few years back with industrialist Ratan Tata when he visited Hedgewar Smriti Bhavan at Nagpur a few years back. It was due to such strong contacts that she was elevated to national executive council of the party in 2010 and eventually became the national spokesperson of the party in 2013. Since 2014 she has been the treasurer of the BJP’s Maharashtra unit. Recently, she joined Shiv Sena in order to contest against Congress MLA Amin Patel from the Mumbadevi constituency.


Born on December 1, 1972, in Mumbai, Shaina completed her schooling at Queen Mary School and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the St. Xavier’s College. She also holds a diploma in fashion design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. She holds a Guinness World Record for draping a saree in 54 different ways fetching her the title “Queen of Drapes”.


In this journey of over two decades, Shaina has covered a large ideological spectrum. Once a very vocal critic of the handling of situation post Godhra riots, she now advocates aggressive Hindutva. Voicing of concern for women’s rights, however, has not changed.

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