As many as 4,140 candidates are in the fray for 288 Maharashtra assembly seats voting on November 20. The deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on November 4.
While the polling will be held in single phase on November 20, the counting will take place on November 23. "We received 7,078 valid nomination forms for 288 seats. Of these, 2,938 candidates have withdrawn nominations, leaving 4,140 in the fray," the state chief electoral office official was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
The number of candidates in the fray this time is a 28 per cent increase from the 3,239 individuals who fought the 2019 assembly polls, the poll official added.
The elections in Maharashtra are bipolar. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led faction of Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar-led faction of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are part of Maharashtra's ruling NDA bloc led by the BJP in Maharashtra. The alliance is contesting against the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) grouping comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), the NCP (Sharad Pawar) and the Congress for THE November 20 elections.
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray has also fielded candidates.
The five years of the outgoing assembly were marred by political turmoil. The state saw three different chief ministers. Two major parties – the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) – saw splits leading to alliances in power and the opposition. These include Bhartiya Janata Party’s Devendra Fadavis, Shiv Sena’s (UBT) Uddhav Thackeray, and now Shiv Sena’s (SHS) Eknath Shinde.
Officials said 420 candidates will fight Mumbai's 36 seats, while the figure is 303 for the 21 seats in Pune district.
The end of the process to withdraw nominations for Maharashtra assembly polls on Monday left the Congress in despair in the Kolhapur North seat after its candidate Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati withdrew, while the BJP managed to convince Gopal Shetty to opt-out from Mumbai's Borivali.
However, the headache for the Mahayuti continued as Sada Sarvankar, the Shiv Sena candidate from the Mahim assembly constituency in Mumbai, braving the pressure from the party leadership, refused to pull out. He is pitted against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray, who has the backing of the BJP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti along with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's NCP.
The BJP is contesting on 148 seats. Its Mahayuti ally NCP is contesting 52 seats. While Shinde-led Sena had released names of candidates for 80 seats, though there was confusion about the number after the withdrawal of nominations.
The Congress is contesting on 102 seats. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) is contesting on 87, while it has given two seats to the CPI. The exact number of candidates for Shiv Sena (UBT) is not available.
(With PTI inputs)
