Mumbai, New Delhi:
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is among the many heavyweight names within the BJP’s first listing of candidates for the November 20 Maharashtra Assembly polls. The listing, which was introduced this afternoon, has 99 names. Maharashtra Assembly has 288 seats and the BJP is more likely to contest practically 160. The remaining seats are being contested by its allies Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.
Mr Fadnavis is contesting from Nagpur West Assembly seat, which he has represented since 2009. Nagpur is a BJP stronghold and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari represents the parliamentary seat in Lok Sabha. Of the six Assembly segments a part of the Lok Sabha constituency, 4 are held by the BJP.
Among the opposite heavyweights, state BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule is contesting from Kamthi, additionally in Nagpur district. Incumbent state minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has been fielded from Ballarpur seat and Union Minister Raosaheb Danve’s son Santosh is the BJP candidate in Bhokardan.
The BJP has fielded Sreejaya Chavan in Bhokar; she is the daughter of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who switched from the Congress to the BJP earlier than the Lok Sabha polls and is now a Rajya Sabha member.
Mihir Kotecha, sitting MLA from Mulund, has been repeated because the candidate and three-time legislator Ram Kadam will contest from Mumbai’s Ghatkopar West seat once more.
BJP’s Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar will contest from Vandre West and state minister Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud. Mr Shelar’s brother has additionally received a ballot move and can contest in Malad West. Subhash Deshmukh is BJP’s candidate in Solapur and Nitesh Rane, son of veteran chief and former Union Minister Narayan Rane, is contesting in Kankavli.
The BJP’s first listing for the Maharashtra election has 13 girls candidates, six candidates from Scheduled Tribes and 4 from Scheduled Castes.
Significantly, the BJP has repeated many sitting MLAs as candidates in Maharashtra. The celebration is understood to switch most sitting representatives in state and nationwide polls to neutralise the results of anti-incumbency and supply voters with a recent choice. Its determination to stay with sitting MLAs on this election means that it’s assured forward of what seems to be a troublesome ballot contest.
In the Lok Sabha polls earlier this yr, the BJP-Sena-NCP alliance had suffered a setback, successful simply 17 out of the 48 parliamentary seats in Maharashtra. The Maha Vikas Aghadi bloc of Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP pulled off a stellar present, successful 30 seats within the politically important state.
The 2019 state polls in Maharashtra had seen the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance publish a powerful win. The allies, nevertheless, parted methods resulting from a disagreement over the Chief Minister’s publish and Uddhav Thackeray tied up with the Congress and NCP to kind the federal government. This authorities was toppled after a mutiny led by Sena chief Eknath Shinde, who then took over as Chief Minister. Between the 2019 election and the upcoming one, the Sena and the NCP have cut up, altering the Maharashtra political panorama and making this election all of the extra thrilling.