The Congress party has released its first list of 51 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, naming party bigwigs and repeating most sitting MLAs.The list does not include former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, who represents the Karad South constituency. He is being persuaded to contest the Satara Lok Sabha seat.
In the Maharashtra assembly polls, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has been fielded to contest from Bhokar assembly constituency.
Senior party leader Nitin Raut, who heads the party’s SC department, has been fielded from the Nagpur North (reserved) constituency. Former home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s daughter Pariniti has also been fielded Solapur Central assembly constituencies.
Congress’s lone Lok Sabha MP Suresh Dhanorkar from Chandrapur has managed to secure a ticket for his wife, Pratibha, from Warora constituency in the same district.
The Congress party has fielded state party chief Vijay BalasahebThorat from Sangamner assembly constituency in Maharashtra. Former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son Amit will fight from the Latur City seat.
While the senior-most MLA of the Congress, Madhukrrao Chavan, has been given another chance from Tuljapur in Osmanabad district, Ruturaj Patil from Kolhapur South is the newcomer on the list.
The first list also includes candidates from nine constituencies in Mumbai. Ashok alias Bhai Jagtap, who is the party’s sitting MLC, will contest the assembly election from Colaba constituency in Mumbai.
The list of candidates was finalised after the party’s Central Election Committee met under the chairmanship of party chief Sonia Gandhi and cleared the names.
The party has fielded 23 sitting MLAs, out of the 42 seats it had won in the 2014 assembly polls.
The upcoming Maharashtra polls are scheduled on October 21. The votes will be counted on October 24.
