Mumbai: Ending speculations over his shifting out of family bastion, Baramati Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Ajit Pawar on Wednesday announced that he will continue from his traditional seat in the Assembly election.
Pawar released the first list of 38 NCP candidates.
It was speculated that Pawar may shift to Ambegaon since Baramati was no longer a safe seat for him. His wife Sunetra, who lost the Lok Sabha election, was trailing in Baramati Assembly segment by more than 60,000 votes. That was an alarming bell for Pawar.
“If he had shifted from Baramati that would have sent a wrong message to his supporters across the state,” a senior NCP leader said. “Remember, Ajit dada had won with highest margin in the state in 2019 elections from Baramati only. He moving out the base would definitely had affected the party workers’ morale.”
No surprises
The announcement of the first list of the candidates was made by NCP’s Maharashtra president Sunil Tatkare. The list of 38 candidates comprises sitting MLAs who shifted their allegiance to Ajit Pawar during the split in the NCP. All nine ministers currently serving in the Mahayuti government have been given the tickets.
Chhagan Bhujbal from Yeola, Dilip Walse Patil from Ambegaon, Dhananjay Munde from Parli, Hasan Mushrif from Kagal, Dharmrao Atram from Aheri, Aditi Tatkare from Shrivardhan, Anil Patil from Amalner, and Sanjay Bansode from Udgir. Deputy Speaker of state assembly Narhari Zirwal has been fielded from Dindori.
Former Congress MLAs who joined the NCP recently were also named in the list, including a ticket to Hiraman Khoskar from Igatpuri and Shulbha Khodke from Amravati. Both of them are former Congress MLAs who joined the NCP (Ajit Pawar) recently. Khodke was expelled from the Congress on October 12 this year. Khoskar joined the party on the night of October 14. The list also includes BJP leader and former minister Rajkumar Badole, who joined the party a couple of days before. Badole will contest from the Arjuni-Morgaon assembly constituency in Gondia district.
Nevertheless, absent from the first list are candidates for any of Mumbai’s 36 seats. Senior NCP leader Nawab Malik, who is considering running from Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar, and his daughter Sana Malik, a potential candidate for the Anushakti Nagar seat, were not included in the first list. In Mumbra-Kalwa constituency Najeeb Mulla will be the party’s candidate. He will take on NCP (SP) leader Jitendra Awhad who is sitting MLA from this constituency.
This election is a bigger challenge for Ajit Pawar faction to overcome the setback it faced in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Contesting four of the state’s 48 Lok Sabha seats earlier this year, the NCP could only win one.
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