The Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of the Shiv Sena on Tuesday released its first list of 45 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly polls 2024. Eknath Shinde will seek re-election from the Kopri-Panchpakhadi seat in Thane city.
The party has re-nominated almost all the MLAs who backed Shinde when he led a revolt against Uddhav Thackeray in June 2022.
Ministers Gulabrao Patil, Deepak Kesarkar, Abdul Sattar and Shambhuraj Desai have been fielded from Jalgaon Rural, Sawantwadi, Silod and Patan, respectively. Kiran Samant, brother of Maharashtra Minister of Industries Uday Samant, has been given a ticket from the Rajapur Assembly constituency.
As per this list, the Shiv Sena fielded Sadanand Shankar Sarvankar from the Mahim seat against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray.
Check full list of candidates here
CM Shinde on Wednesday morning said that Shiv Sena's second list of candidates will be out soon. He also expressed confidence that the Mahayuti will win with huge margins.
Shinde Sena's first list of candidates came two days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its first list of 99 candidates. As per this list, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis has been fielded from his stronghold Nagpur South West whereas state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule will fight from Kamthi.
Former CM Ashok Chavan's daughter Sreejaya Ashok Chavan has been fielded from Bhokar whereas former Union Minister Narayan Rane's son Nitesh Rane has been fielded from Kankavli. BJP Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar has been fielded from the Vandre West assembly seat in Mumbai Suburban.
Deputy CM Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), however, has not yet released any list of candidates so far.
BJP, CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar's NCP are fighting the Maharashtra polls together and they share power in the state. As per the Mahayuti seat-sharing pact, the BJP is likely to get 152-155 seats, Shiv Sena will get 78-80 seats and NCP will contest on 52-54 seats.
Voting for the assembly elections in Maharashtra will take place on November 20 and the results will be declared on November 23.