Maha polls: BJP releases first list of candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 125 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls on Tuesday. The party list was helmed by chief

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 125 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls on Tuesday. The party list was helmed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will contest from Nagpur South West constituency, and state chief Chandrakant Patil, who will contest his first Assembly election from Kothrud constituency in Pune.

HT Image

Patil’s candidature indicates the party is projecting him as its Maratha face and a mass leader after Fadnavis. A member of the legislative Council so far, he has been given the seat, considered safe for the BJP, instead of the sitting MLA Medha Kulkarni.

At least four senior leaders of the party, including two sitting ministers Vinod Tawde and Chandrashekhar Bawankule, have not made it to the first list. Two former ministers – Eknath Khadse and Prakash Mehta – have also not made the cut. Both had faced allegations of graft. While Khadse was asked to resign in 2016, Mehta was dropped quietly in the recent cabinet reshuffle by Fadnavis.

Khadse, a BJP old-timer and former leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, however, went ahead and filed his nomination without the party’s AB form (intimation to election authorities about candidature by the party). It is not yet clear whether this is a rebellion or his name is likely to be included on the second list.

Another minister Vishnu Sawra has also not got candidature, but his son has been fielded from his Vikramgad constituency. “The candidate list has a clear stamp of Fadnavis. The first list has his personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar’s name, but does not have the names of two sitting and two former ministers, whom Fadnavis does not approve of. Patil’s nomination by the party top brass is also significant, as it shows the BJP is projecting him as its number 2 leader in the state,” said a senior BJP leader, who did not want to be named.

The party has dropped 12 of its sitting legislators in the first list and has given tickets to 12 women candidates. A majority of the turncoats, who joined the BJP ahead of the polls from the Opposition, have been given tickets. However, senior NCP leader Ganesh Naik, who was inducted recently and was widely expected to get nomination from Belapur constituency in Navi Mumbai, has not got the ticket. The party has chosen to field its sitting MLA and Naik’s rival Manda Mhatre.

His son and former NCP MLA Sandeep Naik has been nominated from the adjoining Airoli seat. Other former NCP MLAs who have got nominations include Shivendra Bhosale, Vaibhav Pichad, Ranajagjitsinh Patil. Bhosale is from the Maratha warrior king Shivaji’s family clan. Former Congress senior leaders who have got nomination include Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (current state housing minister), former minister Harshawardhan Patil, legislators Jaykumar Gore and Kalidas Kolambkar.While most turncoats have been fielded from their constituencies, Ranajagjitsinh Patil will contest from Tuljapur constituency as his Osmanabad seat is with the Sena. Fadnavis’s personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar has been given a ticket from Ausa constituency in Latur district of Marathwada. This seat was with the Sena.

Assembly speaker Haribhau Bagade, 75, has been given candidature, despite his age, while the party has dropped its sitting MLA from Mulund Sardar Tara Singh and has nominated city unit vice-president Mihir Kotecha from here. Tara Singh had sought ticket for his son, Rajneet Singh who is a director of the troubled Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank