The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its initial list of candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections on Sunday. Among the 99 names on the list are Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule.

Devendra Fadnavis is set to contest from the Nagpur South West constituency, while Bawankule will be vying for the Kamthi seat. Other prominent names on the list include Ram Kadam from Ghatkopar West, Shweta Mahale Patil from Chikli, Sreejaya Ashok Chavan from Bhokar, Nitish Rane from Kankavli, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil from Shirdi, Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud, Ashish Shelar from Vandre West, and Santosh Danve, son of ex-Union Minister Raosaheb Danve, from Bhokardan.

Notably, Sreejaya Chavan is the daughter of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, who switched from the Congress to the BJP in February this year.

Five Sitting MLAs Omitted

Of the 99 candidates named, 89 are sitting MLAs. Five candidates from the 2019 elections were re-nominated, but five current MLAs were left off the list. The majority of the candidates represent the BJP's traditional voter base, comprising OBC, Maratha, and Adivasi communities.

One notable omission is Kamthi MLA Tekchand Savarkar, who had controversially referred to the 'Ladki Bahin Yojana' as a vote-grabbing ploy. In his place, Bawankule will represent Kamthi. Bawankule had held the seat from 2004 to 2014 but was dropped from the 2019 contest, a move that reportedly affected Teli community support for the BJP.

Ashwini Jagtap, the sitting MLA from Chinchwad, was also denied a ticket, with her brother-in-law Shankar Jagtap taking her place amid rumors of her potential defection to Sharad Pawar's NCP faction.

Focus on Mumbai

The BJP announced candidates for 14 out of 36 seats in Mumbai, where they had won 17 seats in the 2019 elections. However, sitting MLAs Parag Shah (Ghatkopar East), Bharti Lavekar (Versova), and Sunil Rane (Borivali) were not included in the first list.

In Western Maharashtra, only one sitting MLA, Ram Satpute from Solapur, has not been re-nominated in this round. Satpute had contested the Lok Sabha polls against Congress MP Praniti Shinde.

The Maharashtra Assembly election for 288 seats will take place in a single phase on November 20, with the vote count scheduled for November 23. The BJP, in alliance with Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction, aims to build on its recent success in Haryana.