Maharashtra polls: Congress declares list with 48 candidates, renominates 28 sitting MLAs

The Congress had won 44 seats in alliance with the undivided NCP during the previous assembly election

Mumbai: The Congress has released its first list of 48 candidates for the upcoming state assembly elections. The party has renominated 28 sitting MLAs in the list, which features most of its senior leaders including state president Nana Patole, legislative party chief Balasaheb Thorat, leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Vijay Wadettiwar, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and working state president Arif Naseem Khan.

Maharashtra Congress President Nana Patole. (ANI/Ritik Jain)

MLAs who have been renominated by the party include Nitin Raut from Nagpur North, Yashomati Thakur from Teosa, Ravindra Dhangekar from Kasba Peth, Amit Deshmukh from Latur City, Dhiraj Deshmukh from Latur Rural, Vishwajeet Kadam from Palus-Kadegaon, KC Padavi from Akkalkuwa, Kunal Patil from Dhule Rural and Sangram Thopte from Bhor.

The Congress had won 44 seats in alliance with the undivided NCP during the previous assembly election.

In the Bhokar assembly constituency, Congress’ Tirupati Kondekar will take on Srijaya Chavan, daughter of former chief minister Ashok Chavan. The seat was represented by Chavan and his wife Ameeta in the past. Chavan resigned as the Bhokar MLA after joining the BJP in February this year and was later elected to the Rajya Sabha.

In Mumbai, Congress has fielded Jyoti Gaikwad, sister of Mumbai president and MP Varsha Gaikwad, from the Dharavi assembly constituency. Dharavi has been the family bastion of the Gaikwads – Varsha and Jyoti’s father Eknath Gaikwad represented the constituency for three terms, followed by Varsha for four terms.

Two sitting MLAs from Mumbai have been renominated by the party — Amin Patel and Aslam Shaikh. Patel will contest from Mumbadevi while Shaikh will contest from Malad West. In the previous assembly polls, the party had won four seats in the city including Dharavi, where Varsha Gaikwad was the winner and Vandre East where Zeeshan Siddique registered his first victory.

During the Lok Sabha polls, Gaikwad was elected as a member of Parliament from the Mumbai North Central seat while Siddique was expelled from Congress for anti-party activities. He is expected to contest from the Ajit Pawar-led NCP.

The party’s working state president Arif Naseem Khan has been fielded from Chandivali, where he lost in the previous poll to Shiv Sena MLA Dilip Lande by a small margin of 409 votes. From Gondia, the party has nominated Gopaldas Agrawal, who had quit the Congress to contest the 2019 state assembly poll but was defeated by BJP rebel Vinod Agrawal.

The Congress is contesting the assembly elections, scheduled on November 20, as part of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). The three main parties in the coalition – Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) – will contest 85 seats each as part of their seat-sharing deal, while a decision on the remaining 33 seats is pending.