The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday announced its first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will contest from his stronghold Nagpur South West.
Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule will contest from Kamthi, while Shrijaya Chavan, daughter of BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, has been nominated from Bhokar.
The list also includes the names of Mumbai BJP president Ashish Selar, fielded from the Vandre West seat, and senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh Rane, fielded from Kankavli, a seat he currently represents in the assembly.
Other key candidates include Girish Mahajan from Jamner, Sudhir Mungantiwar from Ballarpur, Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Malabar Hill, Rahul Narwekar from Colaba, and Chhatrapati Shivendra Raje Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, from Satara.
BJP names 99 candidates for Maharashtra assembly elections: Check the full list
The Mahayuti alliance, which consists of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has not declared a seat-sharing agreement for the assembly elections. The BJP intends to contest approximately 150 seats, but it is experiencing difficult negotiations with its allies.
In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 105 seats, undivided Shiv Sena secured 56, and Congress claimed 44. In the 2014 elections also, the BJP had a stronger showing with 122 seats, while Shiv Sena secured 63, and Congress won 42 seats.
However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP-led Mahayuti won only 17 of the 48 seats in Maharashtra, while the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) secured 30 seats.
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Source: HT
