Mumbai, Oct 20: The BJP has announced its first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, retaining 71 sitting MLAs while also including relatives of notable regional leaders, such as Ashok Chavan's daughter, who recently joined the BJP from Congress.
Key figures on the list include Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar, and ministers Girish Mahajan, Sudhir Mungantiwar, and Chandrakant Patil. The list features 13 women candidates, with the party dropping only three sitting MLAs.
Fadnavis will run again from his stronghold of Nagpur South West, while Narwekar is fielded from Colaba in Mumbai. Other ministers have been renominated for their respective constituencies: Mungantiwar from Ballarpur, Mahajan from Jamner, and Patil from Kothrud. Notably, Mungantiwar had previously lost a Lok Sabha election.
Of the 16 BJP MLAs in Mumbai, 14 have been renominated. The list also includes Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, contesting from Bandra West for the third time, and Nitesh Rane, son of senior leader Narayan Rane, who is running again from Kankavli in coastal Sindhudurg.
Srijaya Chavan, daughter of former Congress politician Ashok Chavan, is making her electoral debut from Bhokar, a constituency previously held by her father, who switched to the BJP prior to the Lok Sabha elections.
The BJP has also given a ticket to Mahesh Baldi, an independent MLA from Uran, and former Congress member Prakash Awade has passed his seat to his son Rahul in Ichalkaranji. Anuradha Chavan has been nominated from Phulambri, replacing Haribhau Bagade, now the Governor of Rajasthan.
The elections for the 288-member assembly are set for November 20, with the BJP aiming to contest around 150 seats amid negotiations with allies, including Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP.
