BJP Shares List Of Candidates For Maharashtra Assembly Elections; Fadnavis To Contest From Nagpur South

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday released its first list of 99 candidates for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is set to contest from his established stronghold of Nagpur South West.

Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule will be contesting from Kamthi, while Shrijaya Chavan, daughter of BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan, has been selected to run from Bhokar.

The list also features notable candidates such as Mumbai BJP president Ashish Selar, who will be standing for the Vandre West seat, and Nitesh Rane, son of senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP Narayan Rane, who will contest Kankavli, a seat he currently represents in the assembly.

Other big names include Girish Mahajan from Jamner, Sudhir Mungantiwar from Ballarpur, Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Malabar Hill, Rahul Narwekar from Colaba, and Chhatrapati Shivendra Raje Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, from Satara.

Maharashtra is set to hold elections for the 288 assembly seats on 20 November, with the results to be declared on 23 November.

The Mahayuti alliance, which comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), has yet to finalise their seat-sharing arrangement for the assembly elections.

While the BJP aims to contest approximately 150 seats, it is currently engaged in challenging negotiations with its allies.

In the 2019 elections, the BJP secured 105 seats, the undivided Shiv Sena claimed 56, and Congress took 44. Similarly, in the 2014 elections, the BJP achieved a stronger result, winning 122 seats, with Shiv Sena securing 63 and Congress winning 42.

However, in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the BJP-led Mahayuti managed to win only 17 of Maharashtra's 48 seats, while the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) took 30 seats.