Maharashtra Elections: Congress Names 23 More Candidates, Check Who's Going Up Against State BJP Chief

The Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on November 20, and votes will be counted on November 23. The term of the current assembly will end on November 26.

The Congress on Saturday announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, two days after it released its first list. The grand old party, will be contesting on at least 85 seats in the polls as the opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi, which consists of Sharad Pawar's NCP and Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena, has decided on the 85-85-85 seat sharing formula.

The second list announced candidates on 23 seats including Bhusawal-SC, Jalgaon (Jmaod), Akot, Wardha, Savneer, Nagpur South, Kamthi, Bhandara-SC, Arjuni-Morgaon-SC, Amagaon-ST, Raiegaon, Yavatmal, Arni-ST, Umarkhed-SC, Jalna, Aurangabad East, Vasai, Kandivali East, Charkop, Sion Koliwada, Shrirampur-SC, Nilanga, and Shirol.

The party has given ticket to Yadavrao Bhoyar from Kamthi assembly constituency under Nagpur district to take on Maharashtra BJP chief Chandrashekhar Krishnarao Bawankule. 

The first list of 48 candidates featured most of its senior leaders including state president Nana Patole, leader of opposition in the legislative assembly Vijay Wadettiwar,legislative party chief Balasaheb Thorat, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, and working state president Arif Naseem Khan. Congress had retained 25 sitting MLAs in its first list.

It fielded former ministers Nitin Raut from Nagpur North, Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad from Dharavi, Amit Deshmukh from Latur City, and Dheeraj Deshmukh from Latur Rural.

Mohammad Aarif Naseem Khan has been fielded from Chandivali, Aslam Sheikh from Malad West, Ranjit Kamble from Deoli, and Vikas Thakre from Nagpur West.

Though MVA has arrived at a seat-sharing for 255 seats, deliberations are underway to seal a final pact for the remaining seats. The three allies are still discussing the seat sharing of the remaining 33 seats of the total 288 among themselves and other smaller parties.

The Maharashtra Assembly elections will be held on November 20, and votes will be counted on November 23. The term of the current assembly will end on November 26.