Mumbai After the completion of the nomination process for all 288 seats of Maharashtra Assembly, the election picture has become clear to some extent. It has been decided that BJP in Mahayuti and Congress in Maha Vikas Aghadi are contesting the elections as the largest party. It was already decided that BJP would contest on more seats but the tussle continued in Aghadi till the end and in the end Congress got 102 seats. On the other hand, BJP is contesting elections on 148 seats. There is still a multi-cornered contest on many seats. The situation will be completely clear only after the withdrawal of nominations on November 4.
However, nominations ended on Tuesday. This time 7,995 candidates have filed nominations. On the last day, 4,996 filled the forms. BJP with 148 candidates from the ruling Mahayuti and Congress with 103 seats are the largest parties in the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Both the parties are fighting on fewer seats than in the 2019 assembly elections. Last time BJP had fielded its candidates on 164 seats while Congress had fielded its candidates on 147 seats. The reason for this is that this time both the parties are contesting the elections with more allies.
Among BJP’s allies, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s NCP are contesting on 53 seats. On the other hand, among Congress allies, Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena is contesting on 89 seats and Sharad Pawar’s NCP is contesting on 87 seats. In the last elections, undivided Shiv Sena had contested on 124 seats and undivided NCP had also contested on 124 seats. MVA has left six seats for smaller allies. The situation is still not clear on two seats of Mahayuti and three seats of MVA.
Meanwhile, there has been a conflict between BJP and Ajit Pawar’s party regarding the candidature of former minister Nawab Malik. NCP has made Nawab Malik the candidate from Mankhurd Shivajinagar seat. On behalf of Mahayuti, this seat has been given to Shiv Sena Shinde faction and Suresh Patil has been made its candidate. BJP has also supported Patil and said that its leaders will not campaign for Malik. Mumbai BJP President Ashish Shelar said on Wednesday – Our party’s stand is clear. Earlier also we were against the candidature of Nawab Malik. Still will not support him, because his link with Dawood Ibrahim had come to light.