BJP’s 4th list adds nominees for Umred, Mira-Bhayandar; to fight on 148 Maha seats

Mumbai (The Uttam Hindu): The BJP on Tuesday announced its fourth list of two candidates for Umred and Mira Bhayandar. Tuesday is the last day for filing nominations for the Maharashtra Assembly elections slated for November 20. With this list, the BJP will field its nominees on 148 Assembly seats while it has left another four seats from its quota to allies Yuva Swabhiman Party, Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Republican Party of India (Athawale) and Jan Suraiya Shakti Paksha.

The BJP and its allies together will contest 152 seats. The BJP has nominated Sudhir Parwe from the Umred SC seat and former mayor Narendra Mehta from the Mira Bhayandar seat. Mehta had lost to an Independent, Geeta Jain in the 2019 Assembly elections. The BJP and Shiv Sena were locked in tough negotiations over the Mira Bhayandar seat as the former was reluctant to leave the seat for the Sena. Jain after Eknath Shinde’s rebellion in June 2022 had supported the latter. Shinde was quite eager to renominate Jain after inducting her into the party. However, Jain had already filed her nomination on Monday as an Independent.

In its four lists, the BJP has renominated most of its 103 sitting legislators while denying tickets to a few in the wake of adverse survey reports. The BJP has not given a ticket to former minister Prakash Mehta from Ghatkopar East again. Mehta, who was a strong contender for the nomination, was earlier dropped in the 2019 election as he was replaced by the party Corporator Parag Shah who has been renominated from Ghatkopar East. Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ former Personal Assistant Sumit Wankhede has been nominated from the Arvi constituency in Wardha district in the Vidarbha region.

The party has denied a ticket to the sitting legislator Dadarao Keche from the Arvi seat. Borivali’s sitting legislator Sunil Rane has been denied a ticket as the party has nominated Mumbai unit General Secretary Sanjay Upadhyay in his place. The party has fielded Archana Patil Chakurkar, who is the daughter-in-law of former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil Chakurkar, from Latur City against the Congress candidate and former minister Amit Deshmukh. Archana Patil-Chakurkar had joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The party has renominated the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Speaker Rahul Narvekar. The list of ministers who were renominated includes Devendra Fadnavis (Nagpur South West) Vijaykumar Gavit from Nandurbar (ST), Girish Mahajan (Jamner), Sudhir Mungantiwar, who lost the Lok Sabha elections from Chandrapur seat (Ballarpur), Atul Save (Aurangabad east), Ravindra Chavan (Dombivali), Mangal Prabhat Lodha (Malabar Hill), Chandrakant Patil (Kothrud), Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil (Shirdi) and Suresh Khadse (Miraj-SC). The party has renominated Devyani Pharande from Nashik Central constituency, Prakash Bharsakale from Akot, Kumar Ailani from Ulhasnagar, Ravindra Patil from Pen, Bhimrao Tapkir from Khadakwasla, Sunil Kamble from Pune Cantonment and Samadhan Awatade from Pandharpur while the party has denied a ticket to the sitting legislator Devraj Holi from the Naxal-affected Gadchiroli (ST) seat where the party has fielded Dr Milind Narode. The BJP has also dropped the sitting legislator Lakhan Malik and nominated Shyam Khode from Washim SC.