Maha Assembly polls: Shiv Sena releases first list of 45, fields sitting MLAs

Shiv Sena has released its first list of 45 candidates by re-nominating the sitting legislators and ministers who remained with Chief Minister Eknath Shinde after he staged a rebellion in June 2022.

The list was released late Tuesday night. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will again contest from Kapri-Pachpakhadi while his ministerial colleagues who were renominated include Gulabrao Patil (Jalgaon rural), Sanjay Rathod (Digras), Abdul Sattar (Sillod), Dadaji Bhuse (Outer Malegaon), Tanaji Sawant (Paranda), Shambhuraj Desai (Patan), Uday Samant (Ratnagiri) and Deepak Kesarkar (Sawantwadi). As the then Minister Sandipan Bhamre was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (erstwhile Aurangabad) constituency, his son Vilas Bhumre was nominated from the Paithan seat.

Shiv Sena is engaged in hard negotiations with allies BJP and NCP to get not less than 80 seats.

While announcing the first list, CM Shinde amid the ongoing protests by pro-Maratha and OBC reservations, has focused on social engineering. Shiv Sena chose to release its first list on a day when the filing of nominations had begun and will go on till October 29. The polling is slated for November 20.

Interestingly, Industry Minister Uday Samant’s brother Kiran Sawant has been fielded from Rajapur as the latter had not hidden his plans to enter into electoral politics. The CM has nominated Suhas Babar, son of party legislator Anil Babar from the Khanapur seat who recently died.

The list of other party nominees includes Manjula Gavit (Sakri ST), Chandrakant Sonawane (Chopra ST), Amol Chimanrao Patil (Erandol) replacing his father and sitting legislator Chimanrao Patil; Kishor Patil (Pachora); Chandrakant Patil (Muktainagar), who had won as an Independent defeating the then BJP leader Eknath Khadse’s daughter Rohini Khadse in 2019 elections; Sanjay Gaikwad (Buldhana); Sanjay Raimulkar (Mehkar SC); Abhijit Adsul (Daryapurkar SC); who is the son of former Union Minister Anandrao Adsul; Ashish Jaiswal (Ramtek), who was elected as an Independent in 2019 elections; Narendra Bhondekar (Bhandara SC), who was elected as an Independent in 2019 election, Balaji Kalyankar (Nanded North) and Santosh Bangar (Kalamnuri).

Former Minister Arjun Khotkar, who had lost to Congress nominee Kailash Gorantyal in 2019 elections, has been fielded from Jalna; Pradip Jaiswal (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Central); Sanjay Shirsat, who recently took over as the chairman of City and Industrial Development Corporation (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar SC); Ramesh Bornare (Vaijapur) and Suhas Kande from Nandgaon despite strong opposition from NCP Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, his nephew Sameer Bhujbal and other party leaders.

CM Shinde’s close associate Pratap Sarnaik has been renominated from Ovala Majiwada; Prakash Surve (Malthane), party MP Ravindra Waikar’s wife Manish Waikar (Jogeshwari East); Dilip Lande (Chandivali); Mangesh Kudalkar (Kurla SC); Sada Sarvankar, who is the chairman of the Siddhivinayak Temple Trust (Mahim); Yamni Jadhav, who lost the Lok Sabha elections from South Mumbai (Mumbai South); Mahendra Thorve (Karjat); Mahendra Dalvi (Alibag); Bharat Gogawale, who recently took over as the chairman of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (Mahad); Shahaji Patil (Sangola); Mahesh Shinde (Koregaon); Yogesh Kadam (Dapoli); Prakash Abitkar (Radhanagari) and Chandradip Narke (Karvir).