1 week Ago
Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday (Oct 20) released its initial list of 99 candidates for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is set to run for election from his established stronghold of Nagpur South West. Maharashtra BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule will compete from Kamthi, while Shrijaya Chavan, the daughter of BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, has been selected as the candidate for Bhokar.
The list also features Mumbai BJP President Ashish Selar, who will contest from the Vandre West seat, along with Nitesh Rane, the son of senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane, who is running from Kankavli, a seat he currently holds in the assembly. Other key candidates include Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar from Vandre West, Nitesh Rane from Kankavli, 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 Chatrapati Shivaji, from Satara. Maharashtra is gearing up for assembly elections for its 288 seats on November 20, with the results to be declared on November 23.
The Mahayuti alliance, comprising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has yet to finalize their seat-sharing arrangement for the elections. The BJP is looking to contest around 150 seats but is encountering challenging negotiations with its coalition partners. In the 2019 elections, the BJP secured 105 seats, while the Shiv Sena (the united faction led by Uddhav Thackeray and Eknath Shinde) won 56 seats, and Congress captured 44 seats.
Similarly, in the 2014 elections, the BJP performed even better, winning 122 seats, compared to the Shiv Sena's 63 and Congress's 42 seats..
