Lokmat News Network
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally, NCP (Sharad Pawar) released the list of their candidates contesting the forthcoming legislative assembly elections. The NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil released the names of 45 candidates today evening.
The names of a few popular candidates from the region include sitting MLA and former minister Rajesh Tope (Ghansawangi), Roopkumar Chavan alias Bablu Chaudhary (Badnapur, SC), state president of Rashtravadi Youth Congress Mehboob Shaikh (Ashti), Chandrakant Danve (Bhokardhan), etc.
Ghansawangi is looked upon as a bastion of Tope, while Chaudhary will have to face BJP’s sitting MLA Narayan Kuche in Badnapur. The Bhokardhan constituency will witness a fight between Chandrakant and Santosh Danve, the sitting BJP MLA and son of former minister Raosaheb Danve. Meanwhile, the party has nominated a fresh Muslim face from Ashti in the form of Mehboob Shaikh to maintain the social engineering.
The names of other candidates from Marathwada are Vinayakrao Patil (Ahmedpur), Jayprakash Dandegaonkar (Vasmat), Sudhakar Bhalerao (Udgir), Pradeep Naik (Kinwat), Vijay Bhamble (Jintur) and Prithviraj Sathe (Kaij).
CSN district missing
In the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, the NCP (SP) has not announced any candidates from any constituency. There is a possibility that MLC Satish Chavan may be nominated for the Gangapur-Khuldabad Marathwada Graduate constituency as his name did not appear in the first list today. He was recently suspended for six years from the Ajit Pawar faction of the NCP. The situation in the Beed constituency also remains complicated, as both the Mahayuti and the Mahavikas Aghadi have not yet announced their candidates from here.