Maharashtra polls: BJP to contest 146 seats; leaves four for allies

Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will contest 146 seats leaving four seats from its quota to allies including Yuva Swabhiman Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Republican Party of India (Athavale) and Jan Surajya Shakti Paksha.

The BJP with its allies will contest 150 of the total 288 seats leaving 138 to Shiv Sena and NCP reiterating that it will continue to be a big brother in the MahaYuti alliance in Maharashtra Assembly elections slated for November 20.

Shiv Sena has so far announced 65 nominees while NCP has released a list of 49 candidates. Together Shiv Sena and NCP will have to announce nominees on 24 seats.

Hours after the BJP released its thrived list of 25 nominees, it announced that the Yuva Swabhiman Party will contest Badnera where the sitting legislator Ravi Rana will contest while RSP legislator Ratnakar Gutte will fight again from Gangakhed constituency.

It is quite interesting that BJP has left Gangakhed to RSP even though its founder Mahadev Jankar has already announced to go solo.

The party has left Kalina’s seat to RPI (Athavale) which had expressed serious displeasure for not getting its due share in the MahaYuti. RPI (Athavale) will soon announce its nominee.

Further, the Jan Surajya Shakti Paksha will renominate its founder Vinay Kore from the Shahuwadi constituency in Kolhapur district.

BJP’s move to allocate four seats from its quota to allies came after a meeting chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah last week with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Ministers Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar.

It is also a message to allies that the BJP takes their due care when it comes to sharing seats and power.

Earlier, the BJP while announcing 146 candidates gave preference to sitting legislators instead of making any experiment by bringing in new faces. The party insiders said that it was done to avoid rebellion and intra-party bickering, especially after taking lessons from the Karnataka elections.

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, after filing his nominations today, said that he would win by a record margin adding that MahaYuti will come back to power in the state.

“The Ladki Bahin, Ladki Bhau (brother) and others will wholeheartedly vote for the MahaYuti,” he noted.

Fadnavis has downplayed whether he will be the Chief Minister’s candidate after MahaYuti comes back to power.

“I have remained Chief Minister for five years and later again for three days. For me becoming Chief Minister is not an issue but the priority is for MahaYuti to once again win the elections to take forward the development agenda which has already been launched,” he added.

IANS