BJP Retains 71 Sitting MLAs In First List For Maharashtra Polls | Key Highlights

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP ) has released its first list of 99 candidates for the next months crucial Assembly elections naming Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis among others. BJP, Eknath Shinde 's Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar 's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are part of Mahayuti alliance. Maharashtra has a total of 288 seats and the polling will be held in one single phase on November 20. Counting is set for November 23. Among 99 candidates, the saffron party has retained tickets of 71 sitting MLAs and also fielded kin of some regional satraps including Ashok Chavan's daughter.

Key names in BJP first list for Maharashtra  

• Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis
• State BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule 
• Assembly speaker Rahul Narwekar
• Ministers Girish Mahajan, Sudhir Mungantiwar, and Chandrakant Patil.
• List also includes 13 women candidates

1. Fadnavis is renominated from home turf Nagpur South West 
2. Narwekar from Colaba in south Mumbai 
3. Ministers Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, and Chandrakant Patil from Ballarpur, Jamner, and Kothrud constituencies.

Mungantiwar had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Chnadrapur constituency which he lost to his nearest Congress rival.

Candidates from Mumbai 

Out of 16 MLAs of BJP in Mumbai, the party has renominated 14 in the first list.

The list also includes: 

• Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar, fielded from the Vandre West seat
• Senior party leader and Lok Sabha member Narayan Rane's son Nitesh Rane, renominated from Kankavli constituency in coastal Sindhudurg.
• Bawankule, a minister in the erstwhile Devendra Fadnavis -led government, was denied a ticket in the 2019 elections from the Kamthi constituency he had represented for three terms. He has been renominated from Kamthi.

BJP 's first list for Maharashtra | Top Points 

1. The BJP has replaced the sitting MLAs from Chinchwad in Pune district, Kalyan East in Thane district, and Srigonda in Ahilyanagar district. In some constituencies, the BJP has allotted tickets to family members of satraps including Sulbha Gaikwad, wife of sitting MLA Ganpat Gaikwad who is in jail for allegedly shooting at a rival politician in a police station.
2. In Mumbai, the BJP has fielded its Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar from the Bandra West assembly segment for the third time, while his brother Vinod Shelar will test the electoral waters from the Malad West seat. Vinod will challenge sitting Congress MLA and former minister Aslam Shaikh.
3. Sulbha Gaikwad will contest from the Kalyan east constituency; Pratibha Pachpute will replace her husband Babanrao Pachpute from Srigonda segment in Ahilyanagar district. Chinchwad MLA Ashwini Jagtap has been replaced by her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap.
4. Ashwini had won the bypoll from Chinchwad after the death of her husband and sitting MLA Laxman Jagtap.
5. Perhaps the most high-profile candidate is Srijaya Chavan, daughter of former Congress politician Ashok Chavan. She will make her electoral debut from the Bhokar constituency, represented by her father, in Nanded district.
6. Chavan senior switched to the BJP on the eve of the Lok Sabha elections. He is now a Rajya Sabha member.
7. The BJP has given Mahesh Baldi, an independent MLA from Uran in Navi Mumbai, a ticket for the November 20 polls. 
8. Former Congressman and Independent MLA Prakash Awade has made way for his son Rahul Awade in Ichalkaranji.
9. Anuradha Chavan, chairperson of the Phulambri APMC and member of the state BJP working committee, has been nominated from the Phulambri constituency in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district place of Haribhau Bagade, who held the seat before being appointed as the Governor of Rajasthan .
10. MLC Ram Shinde is fielded from the Karjat Jamkhed constituency. Shinde will take on sitting MLA Rohit Pawar of NCP (SP), the grandson of Sharad Pawar .