Baramati is the bastion of Ajit Pawar’s undivided family
Mumbai:
The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today released its first list of 38 candidates for the November 20 Maharashtra assembly elections with party chief Ajit Pawar being nominated from the Baramati seat — the bastion of his undivided family. The party also renominated 32 sitting MLAs and fielded sitting legislators Sulbha Khodke (Amravati) and Hiraman Khoskar (Igatpuri), who switched over from the Congress recently.
While senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal has been fielded from Yewla, Bharat Gavit, the son of Congress veteran late Manikrao Gavit, will contest from Navapur.
Deputy Speaker of state assembly Narhari Zirwal has been fielded from Dindori and former minister Rajkumar Badole, who was earlier with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been given the ticket from Arjuni-Morgaon.
Other notable candidates include Dilip Walse-Patil from Ambegaon, Dhananjay Munde from Parli, and Hasan Mushrif from Kagal.
The upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls are a chance for the Ajit Pawar faction to overcome the setback it faced in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Contesting four of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats earlier this year, the NCP could only win one. It was the first major test for the party that broke away from Ajit Pawar’s uncle Sharad Pawar.
Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra Pawar lost to his cousin Supriya Sule by over 1.5 lakh votes in Baramati.
The ruling coalition, which is known as the Mahayuti and comprises the BJP, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, has so far announced 182 candidates for the total 288 seats. While the BJP has released the list for 99 seats, Mr Shinde’s Sena has announced candidates for 45 seats.
The Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, which consists of former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and Congress, is expected to finalise its seat-sharing deal by Wednesday evening.
