Maharashtra Assembly Elections 2024: BJP releases third list; 2 Congress turncoats, Fadnavis' PA among 25 candidates

Mumbai: Two former Personal Assistants (PAs) of BJP stalwart and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis are in fray for the forthcoming Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra. 

Fadnavis, a five-time MLA and former Chief Minister and ex Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly is contesting from the Nagpur South West seat.

In the fresh list of candidates announced on Monday, the name of his former PA and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Sumeet Wankhede figures. 

Wankhede is nominated from the Arvi seat of Wardha district, dropping two-time sitting MLA Dadarao Keche. Arvi, an important centre for the cotton and soybean trade, is known as the City of Saints. 

In 2019 Vidhan Sabha polls, Fadnavis’ PA Abhimanyu Pawar was given a ticket from Ausa in Latur district. In 2019, he had defeated Basavaraj Patil - a prominent Lingayat leader - who was then with Congress. Patil has now joined the BJP.

Pawar is seeking re-election from Ausa, a town with rich medieval history. 

In its third list of 25 candidates, the BJP  has dropped five sitting MLAs, including the one from Borivali. With 28 seats still to be distributed between three Mahayuti partners, the BJP has so far named 146 candidates. 

Borivali MLA Sunil Rane was replaced by Sanjay Upadhyay. Rane had replaced the sitting MLA Vinod Tawde, now national general secretary, in 2019. 

Bharti Lavekar (Versova), Parag Shah (Ghatkopar East), Ram Satpute (Malshiras-SC)  have been retained. In Dahanu,  Vinod Medha will be the BJP's face. In Vasai, Sneha Dubey has been nominated.

Santuk to contest Nanded bypoll

The BJP has nominated Santuk Hambarde to contest the bypolls from the Nanded Lok Sabha seat. He is the brother of Mohanrao Hambarde, who was a sitting Congress MLA from Nanded South.

The elections have been necessitated following the death of Congress MP Vasantrao Chavan - and the grand old party has nominated  his son Ravindra Chavan. AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel, a journalist-turned-politician, who is a former MP and ex-MLA, too may contest the seat. 

Assembly Elections 2024 | The Maharashtra Assembly polls will take place against the backdrop of a fractured political landscape in the western state where the Shiv Sena and NCP will be going up against the Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar factions, even as the BJP and Congress try to make their mark. Meanwhile, in Jharkhand, the JMM faces a new challenge after Hemant Soren's recent arrest and Champai, a longstanding party member, joining the BJP. The Haryana election resulted in a shock loss for Congress, which was looking to galvanize on the Lok Sabha poll performance, while J&K also saw the grand old party eventually stepping away from the cabinet, with Omar Abdullah's JKNC forming government. It remains to be seen if the upcoming polls help BJP cement its position further or provide a fillip to I.N.D.I.A. Check live updates and track the latest coverage, live news, in-depth opinions, and analyses only on Deccan Herald.

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