BJP Releases Second List Of Candidates For Maharashtra Assembly Elections, Sunil Kamble From Pune Cantt And Hemant Rasne From Kasba Constituency
BJP Releases Second List Of Candidates For Maharashtra Assembly Elections, Sunil Kamble From Pune Cantt And Hemant Rasne From Kasba Constituency
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled its second list of 22 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections on Saturday. The latest list includes seven current MLAs, reflecting the party’s strategy of reinforcing familiar faces in key constituencies.
The sitting MLAs named are Prakash Bharsakale (Akot), Devayani Pharande (Nashik Central), Kumar Ayalani (Ulhasnagar), Ravindra Patil (Pen), Bhimrao Tapkir (Khadakwasla), Sunil Kamble (Pune Cantonment), Hemant Rasne from Kasba Peth Constituency and Samadhan Autade (Pandharpur). With this announcement, BJP has now fielded candidates for 121 of Maharashtra’s 288 assembly seats.
Meanwhile, seat-sharing discussions within the Mahayuti alliance—comprising BJP, the Eknath Shinde faction of Shiv Sena, and Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)—are ongoing. Maharashtra BJP President Chandrashekhar Bawankule noted that the allies are close to finalizing the distribution of the remaining seats.
In addition to BJP’s candidate lists, Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction has released two lists, while Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena has issued one. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition, which includes Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), and the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, has confirmed a seat-sharing plan for 255 seats. Each MVA partner will contest 85 seats, with decisions on the remaining 23 seats pending.
With the Maharashtra Assembly elections set for November 20 and vote counting on November 23, both alliances are making final preparations to lock in their strategies and candidate line-ups. In the 2019 elections, the BJP won 105 seats, while Shiv Sena, Congress, and NCP secured 56, 44, and 54 seats, respectively.
