The Sharad Pawar-led NCP on Thursday got off the blocks for the lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra on Thursday, as it released its first list of 18 candidates — comprising among others its senior functionaries Praful Patel, Chaggan Bhujbal, Supriya Sule and Vijaysingh Mohite-Patil – for the state.
The NCP, which is contesting 22 out of the 48 lok Sabha seats in the State, re-nominated six of its eight sitting MPs — Union Minister Praful Patel (Bhandara-Gondia), Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule (Baramati), Udyan-Raje Bhosale (Satara), Sanjeev Naik (Thane), Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai north-east) and Padamsingh Patil (Osmanabad) – as its candidate for the polls, in its first list of 18 nominees for the polls.
The party has done re-jig in the case of its two of other seats currently held by it — Mhada and Nashik, from where its president Sharad Pawar and Sameer Bhujbal had been elected respectively to lok Sabha in the 2009 polls.
With Sharad Pawar opting out of the race and instead getting elected to Rajya Sabha, the NCP has fielded its former deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite Patil from Mhada constituency, while it has put up its senior Maharashtra minister Chaggan Bhujbal in place his nephew and sitting party MP Sameer Bhujbal from Nashik.
The NCP has nominated Anand Paranjape, who won the 2009 lok Sabha polls as a Shiv Sena candidate from Kalyan-Dombivli but shifted his loyalties to the Sharad Pawar-led party midway through his term, as its candidate from Kalyan-Dombivli constituency. Given that he was not expelled from the Shiv Sena after he moved to the NCP, Paranjape continues to be a sitting Sena MP for all technical purposes.
Among the fresh candidates that the NCP has put up are: Manish Jain, son of party’s Rajya Sabha member Ishwarchand Jain (from Raver), Navneet Rana (Amravati), Bharti Pravin Pawar (Dindori), Rajiv Rajale (Ahmednagar), Krishnarao Ingle (Buldhana), Devdatta Nikam (Shirur), Vijay Bhamle (Parabhani) and Satish Patil (Jalgaon).
The NCP has fielded Dhananjay Mandlik, who had contested the lok Sabha polls from Kolhapur as a Shiv Sena, as it candidate from Kolhaour.
The NCP, which is contesting in alliance with the Congress, will field candidates 22 out of the 48 lok Sabha constituencies, while the Sonia Gandhi-led party will put up candidates in the remaining 26 constituencies in the state.
The four seats, for which the NCP has yet to announce its candidates, are: Beed (a seat held by senior BJP leader Gopinath Munde, Hathkanangale (represented by Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty), Hingoli ( a Shiv Sena seat) and Maval (also a Sena seat).
In the race
Praful Patel
(Bhandara-Gondia),
Supriya Sule (Baramati),
Udayan-Raje Bhosale (Satara),
Sanjeev Naik (Thane),
Sanjay Dina Patil (Mumbai north-east)
Padamsingh Patil (Osmanabad)
Sharad Pawar (Mhada)
Sameer Bhujbal (Nashik)