Mumbai:
The BJP on Friday evening declared its candidates for 172 of the 288 seats for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The remaining seats are expected to be taken by allies that were originally part of the Mahayuti or grand alliance forged between six parties including the Shiv Sena.
After the BJP pulled the plug on the Sena, parties like the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana have decided to stick with the BJP.
The BJP has given a ticket to 34 sitting legislators, besides MLAs like Babanrao Pachpute, earlier with the NCP and Ram Kadam, who has recently defected from Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Dr Vijaykumar Gavit, who lost his ministerial berth in the Congress-NCP cabinet because his daughter joined the BJP, has been rewarded with a ticket to contest from Nandurbar, represented by his daughter, Dr Heena Gavit in the Lok Sabha.
The NCP also released a list of 131 candidates. The NCP has decided to field Dhananjay Munde, estranged nephew of late Gopinath Munde against his daughter Pankaja from the Parli constituency in Beed, where she is seeking a re-election. But that's not the only family connection in the NCP list. PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his son Pankaj have got tickets from Nashik constituencies, as have minister Ganesh Naik and his son Sandeep. Dharamrao Baba Atram and his wife Bhagyashree are contesting from the two seats in Gadchiroli.
NCP state President Sunil Tatkare's nephew Avdhoot, former president Madhukarrao Pichad's son Vaibhav, deputy chairman of the Legislative council Vasant Davkhare's son Niranjan have all been given tickets.
Today is the last day for filing nominations for the elections that will be held on October 15.