Mumbai: The BJP Sunday announced its first list of 99 candidates for the 20 November Maharashtra assembly elections, repeating most of the incumbents and giving tickets to family members of several party leaders.
The party has brought back Chandrashekhar Bawankule, the state BJP president whose name was dropped from the 2019 list, to contest from his old constituency of Kamthi in Nagpur district. It has also fielded Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis again from his stronghold, Nagpur South West.
“The BJP wanted to go with a winnable formula and did not want to take any risk in this election,” political analyst Abhay Deshpande told ThePrint.
“The names chosen in this first list are mostly repeated and those who are newly inducted are the ones who have a good chance at winning. For example, Bawankule or Ram Shinde, MLCs getting an opportunity at Vidhan Sabha means BJP wants to make sure it doesn’t experiment much and these names are safe too,” he added.
Of the 99, the party has announced 14 candidates from Mumbai, which has 36 assembly constituencies. It has also given an opportunity to 10 new faces.
The Mahayuti, which comprises the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the BJP, is yet to hammer out a final seat-sharing formula.
Leaders from the three parties had last week said negotiations were complete for a vast majority of the seats, and that only 20-25 contentious seats were yet to be decided.
The Maharashtra assembly has 288 seats. Poll results will be declared on 23 November.
Tickets to family members
The BJP has always criticised the Congress for dynasty politics and touted its own ‘one family, one ticket’ policy. The party’s first list for the Maharashtra polls, however, flies in the face of this policy.
The party has nominated Shreejaya Chavan, daughter of Rajya Sabha MP and former chief minister Ashok Chavan, from the Bhokar assembly constituency in Nanded district.
The Bhokar seat was held by Ashok Chavan himself before he switched sides from Congress to BJP and got nominated to the Rajya Sabha in February this year. Earlier in 2014, Ameeta Chavan, his wife, fought from this seat on a Congress ticket.
Sulabha Gaikwad, wife of BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad, has got a ticket from Kalyan East. Ganpat Gaikwad is currently in jail for shooting at Shiv Sena’s Mahesh Gaikwad over a property dispute earlier this year. Sulabha getting a ticket means the BJP is making Kalyan, represented by Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde’s son Shrikant Shinde, a focus area. Leaders from the Shinde-led Shiv Sena were keen on clinching the Kalyan East seat.
Apart from this, the Shelar brothers — Ashish and Vinod — have got tickets from Vandre West and Malad West respectively. Ashish Shelar is a two-time incumbent MLA from Bandra West and the party’s Mumbai unit chief.
In Chinchwad, MLA Ashiwini Jagtap has been replaced by her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap.
Pratibha Pachpute, wife of sitting MLA Babanrao Pachpute, got a ticket to contest from Shrigonda, Ahmednagar.
Former BJP MP Haribhau Jawale’s son Amol Jawale is the candidate from Raver seat in Jalgaon district.
Surprises
Major surprises on the BJP’s first list include a ticket to state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule from Kamthi. Bawankule, an OBC leader, was dropped in 2019 and is currently an MLC.
Mihir Kotecha, who lost the Lok Sabha election from Mumbai North East constituency this year, has been given a ticket from Mulund, a constituency he had won in the 2019 polls.
From Mumbai, sitting MLAs Bharati Lavekar (Versova), Parag Shah (Ghatkopar East), and Sunil Rane (Borivali) are still on the waitlist.
Three independent MLAs also got BJP tickets — Vinod Agrawal from Gondia, Rajesh Bakane from Deoli, and Mahesh Baldi from Uran.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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