BJP announces 99 candidates in first list for Maharashtra poll; Fadnavis to contest from Nagpur

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will be contesting from his traditional Nagpur South West seat as BJP announces its first list of candidates for 99 seats for the forthcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections.
| Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini

The BJP’s first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election features 71 sitting MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is contesting from his home turf in the Nagpur South West seat. State BJP president and Maharashtra Legislative Council member Chandrashekhar Bawankule will return to contest the Kamthi Assembly seat, which he had held for a decade till 2014.

A majority of the candidates on the list belong to the other backward class (OBC), Maratha, and Adivasi communities.

There are 13 women on the list, including Sreejaya Ashokrao Chavan, the daughter of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. She is making her electoral debut from the Bhokar constituency in Nanded district, which was represented by her father when he was with the Congress before switching loyalties to the BJP earlier this year.

Missing names

Of the 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai, the BJP has named 14 sitting MLAs as candidates for the upcoming election. However, its three remaining sitting MLAs from Mumbai — Parag Shah from Ghatkopar East, Bharti Lavekar from Versova, and Sunil Rane from Borivali — have not made it to the first list.

Another prominent name conspicuous by its absence in the first list is Ram Satpute, the sitting MLA from Solapur, and the BJP’s only Lok Sabha candidate from western Maharashtra, who lost this year’s general election to Congress MP Praniti Shinde. 

Mr. Bawankule is contesting in place of Kamthi’s sitting MLA, Tekchand Savarkar, who fell out of favour after calling the State’s flagship scheme for women, the Ladki Behin Yojana, a gamble for votes. In 2019, Mr. Bawankule had been dropped as a BJP candidate despite the fact that he had represented the Kamthi seat from 2004 to 2014. The decision had upset the Teli community that Mr. Bawankule belongs to, and had cost the BJP almost 12 seats in Vidarbha. 

The first list also includes Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar contesting from Colba, Girish Mahajan from Jamner, Sudhir Mungantiwar from Ballarpur, Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Malabar Hill, Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud, Vijaykumar Krishnarao Gavit from Nandurbar, Nitish Rane from Kankavli, Ashish Shelar from Vandre West, and ex-Union Minister Raosaheb Danve’s son Santosh Danve from Bhokardan. 

Family ties

In some constituencies, the BJP is fielding family members like Sulbha Gaikwad, wife of sitting MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, who will contest the polls from the Kalyan East constituency while her husband remains in jail for allegedly shooting at a rival politician in a police station. Pratibha Pachpute is contesting instead of her husband Babanrao Pachpute, the sitting MLA from Srigonda in the Ahilyanagar district. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, the BJP has replaced sitting MLA Ashwini Jagtap with her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap, the party chief in the area.

An independent sitting MLA from Uran in Navi Mumbai, Mahesh Baldi, has also been included in the BJP’s first list. Rahul Awade, son of former Congress leader Prakash Awade, is contesting as the BJP’s candidate from Ichalkaranji.  

From Karad South, the BJP has repeated its 2019 candidate Atul Bhosale, who lost the last Assembly election there to former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan of the Congress.

In Pune, the party has repeated its sitting MLAs: Siddharth Shirole from the Shivajinagar seat, Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud, Madhuri Misal from the Parvati seat, and two-time MLA Mahesh Landge from Bhosari. Ram Shinde, the sitting MLA from the Karjat-Jamkhed seat and Rahul Kul, the MLA from Daund, have also been renominated.