New DelhiBharatiya Janata Party has also released the first list of candidates for Maharashtra Assembly elections, a day after Jharkhand. Relatives of many leaders have been given tickets in the first list of 99 candidates. The party has given tickets to both Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar and his brother Vinod Shelar, while the daughter of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who left Congress and joined BJP, has also got the ticket. Ashok Chavan is currently a BJP MP. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will contest from Nagpur South West seat.
However, in the BJP’s first list of 99 candidates, there are six Scheduled Tribe and four Scheduled Caste seats. The party has given tickets to 13 women in the first list. There are 10 candidates of the party who will contest elections for the first time. BJP has also made three independent MLAs its candidates in the first list. It is noteworthy that in the alliance of seats in Mahayuti, BJP will contest elections on 155 seats. Voting for all 288 seats in the state will be held in a single phase on November 20. Counting of votes will take place on November 23.
In the first list of BJP, Anmol Jawale, son of former party MP Haribhau Jawale, has been made the candidate from Raver seat. Maharashtra BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule will contest from Kamathi. Shrijaya Chavan, daughter of former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, has been given ticket from Bhokar and Santosh Danve, son of former Union Minister Raosaheb Danve, has been given ticket from Bhokardan seat. The party has canceled the tickets of 3 sitting MLAs.
Sudhir Mungantiwar, who lost the Lok Sabha elections from Chandrapur seat this year, has got the ticket from Ballarpur Assembly and Mihir Kotecha has got the ticket from Mulund seat. Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar has been made the candidate from Bandra West and his brother Vinod Shelar from Malad West. Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar will contest from Colaba and Nitish Rane from Kankavali. Narvekar has been the target of the opposition for not canceling the membership of Shiv Sena and NCP MLAs. Similarly, Nitish Rane, son of former Chief Minister Narayan Rane, has been in controversies over his anti-Muslim statements. BJP has fielded Atul Bhosale from Karad South, the seat of former Chief Minister and Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan.