Maharashtra assembly polls: BJP announces 125 candidates, Fadnavis to contest from Nagpur South-West seat

The BJP on Tuesday announced the first list of 125 candidates for the Assembly polls in Maharashtra election, which are scheduled to be held on October 21.

Out of the 125 seats, 52 sitting MLAs have been given ticket again while 12 sitting MLAs were denied the ticket by the party.

Prominent among those who have been fielded again in the fray include Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will contest from Nagpur South-West seat, state unit party chief Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud and Pankaja Munda from Parli.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP recently, will be contesting from Shirdi whereas State Minister Girish Mahajan has been given the ticket from Jamner. Fadnavis' personal assistant (PA) Abhimanyu Pawar has also been fielded from Ausa.

In addition to these, the BJP also announced that Udayanraje Bhosale will be the party candidate for the Lok Sabha by-poll to be held in Satara constituency.

Bhosale had earlier met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and tendered his resignation as an NCP MP and later joined the BJP in the presence of top party leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah, working president JP Nadda and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The party has also given tickets to new entrants like Vikhe Patil, who will contest from Shirdi. The new entrant from the Congress Harshwardhan Patil has been fielded from Indapur seat.

Sweta Mahale will contest from Chikhli constituency.

BJP's first list has 125 names while the remaining names will be announced in a day or two. Shiv Sena has also released a list of 124 seats. A few seats will go to other alliance partners.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP and the Shiv Sena had fought separately. The BJP had won 122 seats while the Shiv Sena won 63 seats. Later, the two parties allied to form the government in the state.