Senior leader Manikrao Thakare among 16 in Congress' third list; BJP releases second list
Congress on Saturday released its third list of 16 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly elections which included senior leader Manikrao Thakare. With the third list, the party has declared 87 candidates so far for the November 20 elections to the 288-member assembly. Its talks with allies NCP(SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) for seat-sharing are still underway. Thakare, a former state Congress chief and the party's present Goa in-charge, was fielded from Digras constituency in Yavatmal district. Nanded South MLA Mohanrao Hambarde was retained, while Kolhapur North MLA Jayashri Jadhav was replaced with Rajesh Latkar.
Nivruttirao Kamble was fielded from Deglur in place of sitting MLA Jitesh Antapurkar who has crossed over to the BJP. Lakhibhau Jadhav was fielded from Igatpuri in place of sitting MLA Hiraman Koskar who has switched his loyalties to the NCP. Asif Zakaria would contest from Vandre West, taking on Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, while Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant was fielded from Andheri West.
The Bharatiya Janata Party released its second list of 22 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly elections, retaining six sitting MLAs and dropping two. The saffron party, a member of the ruling Mahayuti coalition along with the Shiv Sena and NCP, has declared candidates for 121 constituencies so far. In the second list, the party replaced sitting MLAs of Washim and Gadchiroli while retaining the MLAs of Akot, Nashik Central, Pen, Khadakwasla, Pune Cantonment and Ulhasnagar. The second list also featured two members of the legislative council: Gopichand Padalkar was fielded from Jat and Ramesh Karad from Latur Rural where he would take on Congress' Dhiraj Deshmukh.
Elections to the 288-member assembly would take place on November 20. Among the MLAs who were given the ticket again were two leaders from Pune, namely, Sunil Kamble (Pune Cantonment) and Bhimrao Tapkir (Khadakwasala). The party also fielded Hemant Rasne from Kasba constituency in Pune city.