Maharashtra Elections: Devendra Fadnavis To Nana Patole — Check Key Mahayuti Vs. MVA Battles

The Maharashtra assembly elections on Wednesday will see an intense battle between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi. With only a few days left for the elections, the campaigning has gained momentum with all eyes on battles between families, clashes of legacies, and former chief ministers.

The counting of votes for the 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra will be held on Nov. 23.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is contesting the highest number of seats (148) among all the parties, followed by the Congress, which has nominated candidates for 103 seats. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena is contesting 80 seats, while Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party will contest 53 seats.

In the MVA, the Indian National Congress has nominated candidates for 103 seats, followed by the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) with 89 seats and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) with 87. The remaining six seats were given to other allies of the MVA.

The showdown between the Mahayuti and the MVA is fuelled by the split within the two Senas and the two NCP factions, resonating across Maharashtra's grassroots.

While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and Raigad will see their own fierce contests, let's explore some of the major electoral battles unfolding across the rest of Maharashtra.

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and the former chief minister, Devendra Fadnavis, is looking to clinch his stronghold for the fourth straight time.

The deputy CM, who has held the Nagpur South West assembly seat for three consecutive terms since 2009, is pitted against the Congress' Prafulla Gudadhe, who is known for his grassroots connections.

In the 2019 assembly election, Fadnavis won from the constituency with a margin of more than 49,000 votes.

It's Pawar vs. Pawar in a high-stakes family showdown! Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and NCP President Ajit Pawar is set to face off against his nephew, Yugendra Pawar, the NCP (SP) candidate, in the Baramati constituency—a stronghold long dominated by Sharad Pawar's family.

Ajit Pawar, a seven-time MLA from Baramati, defied family ties to join the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition under Eknath Shinde. Now, he is facing a formidable challenge from Yugendra Pawar, 32, in the first election since the split.

The family rivalry follows closely on the heels of the Lok Sabha elections, where Sharad Pawar's daughter, Supriya Sule, defeated Ajit Pawar's wife, Sunetra Pawar, by over 1.5 lakh votes.

In 2019, Ajit Pawar, then with the undivided NCP, triumphed over the BJP's Gopichand Padalkar by a margin of 1.65 lakh votes. Now, Baramati gears up for yet another Pawar family clash—this time, uncle vs. nephew.

It’s a battle of legacies in Latur! Maharashtra's Latur City will see a face-off between Congress’s three-term MLA Amit Deshmukh—son of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh—and BJP's fresh contender, Archana Patil-Chakurkar—the daughter-in-law of former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, a close Gandhi family confidant.

In 2019, Amit Deshmukh, carrying the Congress torch in Marathwada, secured a significant victory with over 1.11 lakh votes. Now, the BJP is banking on Patil-Chakurkar, a Lingayat community representative, to challenge Deshmukh’s hold on this traditional Congress bastion.

For decades, the Congress dominated Latur, largely due to its powerful political families. However, with shifting alliances and the BJP gaining ground, the stakes are high as these two influential dynasties go head-to-head.

It is a prestige battle for Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole as he faces off against the BJP's Avinash Anandrao Brahmankar in the Sakoli Assembly constituency.

In the previous 2019 elections, Nana Patole secured a victory over the BJP's Parinay Ramesh Fuke with a margin of 6,240 votes. 

The BJP has fielded former CM Ashok Chavan's daughter, Sreejaya Chavan, in her political debut, aiming to extend the Chavan family's five-decade grip on this constituency.

Sreejaya Chavan faces Congress' Tirupati Kadam in a bid to keep the Chavan stronghold amid a local history of anti-BJP sentiment. As for the Chavan family, Nanded is as vital as Baramati is for the Pawars.

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar East (formerly known as Aurangabad) will see the BJP's Atul Save pitted against Imtiyaz Jaleel of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. This seat will also see candidates from the MVA and also from the Samajwadi Party.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP's Atul Moreshwar Save won the Aurangabad (East) seat with a margin of 13,930 votes.

Maharashtra BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule is eyeing a fourth consecutive term from the Kamthi assembly seat in Nagpur. Bawankule is fielded against former Nagpur Zila Panchayat president and Congress' Suresh Bhoyar. 

BJP candidate and sitting MLA Nitesh Rane faces competition from Shiv Sena (UBT) district president Sandesh Parkar for the Kankavali seat in Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra. The Bahujan Samaj Party has pitted its candidate, Chandrakant Abaji Jadhav.

Rane, who is the son of former Union minister Narayan Rane, who won the Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg Lok Sabha seat, is set to play a crucial role for the BJP attempting to retain his seat.

In the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly Elections, Rane won the Kankavali seat with a margin of 28,116 votes.