MVA partners rush to announce candidates

MVA partners Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and NCP (SP) begin declaring candidates for upcoming Maharashtra elections.

Mumbai: Though the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is yet to officially announce the seat-sharing arrangement among its constituents Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar), all three parties have begun declaring candidates of their choice for select constituencies in the state. While both the Congress and the NCP (SP) have declared six candidates each, the Shiv Sena (UBT) has clearly taken the lead, with party chief Uddhav Thackeray declaring candidates for as many as 12 Lok Sabha seats in recent days.

The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has finalised a seat-sharing agreement for 39 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray will decide on remaining nine seats (HT PHOTO)

Though the seat-sharing formula between MVA partners has not been made official, Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) have decided to contest 20, 18 and 10 seats respectively, subject to minor changes during last-minute negotiation, said sources.

On Thursday, Congress officially announced its first list of seven candidates, while on Friday, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar announced the names of six candidates. Though Shiv Sena (UBT) has not declared any candidates officially yet, Thackeray, who has been touring Lok Sabha constituencies his party plans to contest for the past two months, has announced the names of candidates for over a dozen constituencies during his rallies. On Thursday, he told a rally at Sangli district’s Miraj, “I am declaring the name of Chandrahar Patil as the candidate for Lok Sabha from this constituency.”

Other candidates declared unofficially by the party include MP Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South, Amol Kirtikar from Mumbai North West, MP Rajan Vichare from Thane, former MP Anant Geete from Raigad, MP Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Chandrahar Patil from Sangli, former MP Bhausaheb Wakchaure from Shirdi, Sanjog Waghere from Maval, MP Omraje Nimbalkar from Osmanabad, MP Bandu Jadhav from Parbhani and Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim.

A senior Shiv Sena (UBT) leader said Thackeray has shortlisted names for constituencies like Kalyan, Buldhana, Nashik and Hingoli, but these would be declared later.