BJP Candidate List 2024: Maharashtra Assembly Elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party has released its first list of 99 candidates for the elections to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly. BJP has retained 71 sitting MLAs and also fielded kin of some regional satraps including Congress-turned-BJP politician Ashok Chavan's daughter.

Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, ministers Girish Mahajan, Sudhir Mungantiwar, and Chandrakant Patil, are among the prominent faces feature in the first list released on Sunday.

The list includes 13 women candidates. The saffron party has also dropped sitting MLAs from Chinchwad in Pune district, Kalyan East in Thane district, and Srigonda in the Ahilyanagar district.

Fadnavis is renominated from home turf Nagpur South West, Narwekar from Colaba in south Mumbai, and ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, and Chandrakant Patil from Ballarpur, Jamner, and Kothrud constituencies, respectively.

Out of 16 MLAs of BJP in Mumbai, the party has renominated 14 in the first list. The list also includes Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, fielded from the Vandre West seat, and senior party leader and Lok Sabha member Narayan Rane's son Nitesh Rane, renominated from Kankavli constituency in coastal Sindhudurg.

In some constituencies, the BJP has allotted tickets to family members of satraps including Sulbha Gaikwad, wife of sitting MLA Ganpat Gaikwad who is in jail for allegedly shooting at a rival politician in a police station.

In Mumbai, Ashish Shelar's brother Vinod Shelar will test the electoral waters from the Malad West seat. Vinod will challenge sitting Congress MLA and former minister Aslam Shaikh.

Sulbha Gaikwad will contest from the Kalyan east constituency; Pratibha Pachpute will replace her husband Babanrao Pachpute from Srigonda segment in Ahilyanagar district.

Chinchwad MLA Ashwini Jagtap has been replaced by her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap. Ashwini had won the bypoll from Chinchwad after the death of her husband and sitting MLA Laxman Jagtap.

Perhaps the most high-profile candidate is Sreejaya Chavan, daughter of former Congress politician Ashok Chavan. She will make her electoral debut from the Bhokar constituency, represented by her father, in Nanded district. Chavan senior switched to the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections. He is now a Rajya Sabha member.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP's tally in Maharashtra fell from 23 to 9 due to several factors while facing off against the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidates.

In the 2019 assembly elections contested with then ally Shiv Sena (undivided), the BJP bagged 105 of 164 seats where it had fielded candidates.

The elections to the 288-member assembly will be held on November 20.

The BJP is looking to contest around 150 seats in the state but is involved in tough bargaining with its allies Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

(with PTI inputs)