Maharashtra Elections: BJP First List Of Candidates Out, Devendra Fadnavis Among Heavyweights Named

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly Elections scheduled to be held in November.

Among the key candidates is Maharashtra deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will be contesting from his incumbent seat of Nagpur South West.

The Maharashtra elections will take place in a single phase on Nov. 20 while the counting will take place on Nov. 23. The 288-member assembly in the state is set to complete its term on Nov. 26.

State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule is another key candidate named by the BJP. He will be contesting from Kamthi.

Other heavyweights retained by the BJP include Sudhir Mungantiwar, the incumbent minister for forests. He is fielded from Ballarpur seat.

Union Minister and former BJP state chief Raosaheb Danve's son Santosh Danve has also been named in the first list of candidates by the BJP. The party has issued him the ticket from Bhokardan.

BJP's Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar has been named as the candidate from Vandre West, whereas his brother has been issued the ticket from Malad West. Other key candidates retained in the Mumbai region include Mihir Kotecha, the sitting legislator from Mulund, and Ram Kadam, the three-time MLA from Mumbai's Ghatkopar West.

State minister and senior party leader Chandrakant Patil has been named as the candidate from Kothrud, Subhash Deshmukh has been issued the ticket from Solapur and former Union Minister Narayan Rane's son Nitesh Rane has been fielded from Kankavli.

Despite the recent setback in the Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, the BJP has retained several of its sitting MLAs. A total of 71 candidates out of the 99 named in the first list are sitting legislators, news agency PTI reported.

Among the new entrants in the list is Sreejaya Chavan, the daughter of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan. She will be contesting from Bhokar constituency. Her father had switched over to the BJP, after more than three decades with the Congress, ahead of the general elections.

The first BJP list includes a total of 13 women candidates, six from the scheduled tribes and four from the scheduled castes.

Notably, the saffron party is contesting the polls in an alliance with its ruling coalition partners—the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party.

Under the pre-poll pact, the BJP will fight from 151 out of the 288 constituencies.

The electoral battle comes in the backdrop of the BJP and its allies facing a rout in the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. The BJP was reduced to nine seats, Shiv Sena seven and the NCP won only one seat.

In comparison, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance bagged 30 Lok Sabha seats, with the Congress leading the tally with 13 wins, Shiv Sena (UBT) winning nine, and Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) wresting eight.

The assembly polls in Maharashtra will come weeks after Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir elections and less than six months after the Lok Sabha elections.

Along with Maharashtra, the 81-seat Jharkhand assembly will also go to polls in November.