Amid speculation that both of them have decided on 164:124 seat-sharing formula, the ruling BJP and its ally Shiv Sena on Tuesday released their first list of 125 and 70 candidates respectively for the Maharashtra Assembly polls scheduled for October 21.
Though the two saffron alliance partners had in a joint statement issued on Monday night announced their pre-poll alliance, they had not come out officially with their seat-sharing formula till Tuesday evening.
Informed sources said that of the total 288 seats, the BJP (and allies) and Sena had mutually agreed to contest 164 and 124 seats respectively. From its quota of 164 seats, the BJP would allocate 18 seats to smaller parties that are part of the saffron alliance-led front.
In its first list of 125 seats, the BJP has re-nominated 52 of its sitting MLAs, including 12 women, as its candidates. The names of its senior leader and former minister Eknath Khadse, its current minister Vinod Tawade and scam-tainted former Housing Minister Prakash Mehta are missing from the first list.
Another prominent omission from the list of the BJP’s list of candidates is former NCP leader and minister Ganesh Naik. Though it was expected the BJP might field him from Belapur, the BJP has chosen to re-nominate Manda Mhatre, who had defeated Naik in the 2014 Assembly elections from Airoli by a margin of 7,000 votes. However, the BJP nominated Naik’s son and sitting MLA from Airoli Sandip Naik.
Prominent names of candidates that figure in the BJP’s first list include: incumbent chief minister Devendra Fadnavis (Nagpur south-west), State BJP president Chandrakant Patil (Pune-Kothurd), Finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar (Ballarpur), Water Resources minister Girish Mahajan (Jamner), Minister of School Education, Sports and Youth Welfare Asish Shelar ( Bandra-west), Minister for Rural Development, Women & Child Development Pankaja Munde-Palwe (Parli) and current Housing Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil ( Shirdi).
Shivendra Raje Bhosale ( Satara), Minister of State for Women and Child Development Vidya Thakur (Goregaon), Mukta Tilak (Pune- Kasba Peth), wife of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s great-grandson Shailesh and Pune Mayor, Ranajagjitsinh Patil (Tuljapur) and former Congress manm sitting MLA Kalidas Kolumbar (Worli) and former Congress man and sitting MLA Jaykumar Gore (Maan) also figure in the BJP’s first list.
Shiv Sena’s youth wing president Aditya Thackeray (Worli), Eknath Shinde (Kopar Pachpakdi), Pratap Sarnaik (Owla Majivade), Jaydatta Kshirsagar (Beed) and figure in the first list of candidates released by the Shiv Sena.
Aditya will file his nomination from the Worli constituency in south-central Mumbai on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Sitting Congress MLA and former chief minister Narayan Rane’s son Nitesh resigns from his membership of the State Assembly, signalling his, his father and brother Nilesh’s entry to the BJP in the coming days.
Sr Rane, whose entry to the BJP is long being resisted by the Shiv Sena for a long time, may – along with his two sons —join the BJP formally on October 2.
It may be recalled that Sr Rane had quit the Congress on September 21, 2017 after complaining that the party leadership had failed to fulfil its repeated promise of appointing him as the chief minister. Subsequently, he floated a new political out “Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha” (MSP) on October 1, 2017. The MSP joined the BJP-led NDA. Sr. Rane was elected to Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJP on March 15 last year.
The BJP will in likelihood field Nitesh Rane from Kankavli-Devgadh constituency, which is in its quota in alliance with the Shiv Sena.