NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Congress on Saturday released a list of 39 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. The party has announced 87 candidates so far.
Though the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) comprising the Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) announced that they would contest 85 seats each, the Congress has got two more seats to contest.
The third list, released late Saturday evening, has 16 candidates, while the second list had 23 candidates in the afternoon. The party has fielded Sachin Sawant from Andheri West and Mohanrao Marotrao Ambade from Nanded South.
In Kolhapur North, Rajesh Bharat Latkar has been fielded while Prithviraj Gulabrao Patil will contest from Sangli.
In the ST reserved seat Gadchiroli, the party has fielded Manohar Tulshiram Poreti and Manikrao Thakare contest from Digras. While Rana Dalipkumar Sanada will contest from Khamgaon, Dr Hemant Nanda Chimote will be in ST seat Melghat.
In Nagpur South— a disputed seat between the Congress and Shiv Sena (UBT), the party has fielded Girish Pandav from that seat.
While Kalu Badheliya has been fielded from Kandivali East, Yashwant Singh will contest from Charkop against BJP’s Yogesh Sagar. The party has fielded Ganesh Yadav from Sion Koliwada. The party has fielded Suresh Bhoyar against BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule from Kamthi. Shekhar Shende will contest from Wardha. The party released the first list of 48 candidates on Thursday.
The names of candidates were finalised at a meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC) chaired by party chief Malllikarjun Kharge on Friday evening. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, K C Venugopal, and state leaders attended the meeting.
AICC in-charge Maharashtra, Ramesh Chennithala, said all constituents will be given representation as part of the MVA alliance. “Samajwadi Party, CPM, CPI and AAP are part of MVA. We are giving representation to all the parties, but seats are limited,” he said.
In its first list, the party retained several sitting MLAs and fielded senior leaders including Nana Patole and former CM Prithviraj Chavan. The party also fielded former ministers Nitin Raut and Balasaheb Thorat from Nagpur North and Sangamner.