Maharashtra Polls: 13 Key Battles To Watch Out For In Mahayuti Vs MVA In Assembly Elections
The process of filing of nominations began on October 22 and concluded on Tuesday. The verification and scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on Wednesday, October 30.
Maharashtra Assembly Elections: The stage is now set for an intense battle between the ruling Mahayuti and the opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi as the nomination filing process for the Assembly elections in Maharashtra has concluded. Nearly 8,000 candidates, from both the major ruling political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nationalist Congress-Ajit Pawar, and CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, as well as MVA's Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress, and NCP-SP, have filed nominations for the 288 Assembly seats.
The ruling BJP is contesting the highest number of seats (148) among all the parties, followed by the Congress which has nominated candidates for 103 seats. CM Shinde's Sena is contesting on 80 seats, while Deputy CM Pawar's NCP will contest 53 seats.
In the MVA, the Congress has nominated candidates for 103 seats, followed by the Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) 89, and Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) 87 seats. Remaining six seats were given to other allies of the MVA.
The process of filing of nominations began on October 22 and concluded on Tuesday. The verification and scrutiny of nomination papers will take place on Wednesday, October 30. The last date for withdrawal of candidatures is till 3 PM on November 4. Elections will be held on November 20, followed by the counting of votes on November 23.
Here are the 13 key battles in Maharashtra elections between Mahayuti and MVA:
Aheri
Dharmarao Baba Atram (NCP Ajit Pawar) versus Bhagyashree Atram (NCP Sharad Pawar) versus Ambrishrao Atram (Independent)
Four-time sitting MLA and minister Dharmarao Baba Atram will fight against his daughter Bhagyashree Atram-Halgekar. The Atrams belong to Gond tribes. Former BJP minister and Atram’s nephew Ambrishrao will contest as Independent.
The seat, which is part of the Maoist-hit region, is part of the Gadchiroli-Chimur Lok Sabha seat and has a considerable Gond tribe population.
Baramati
Ajit Pawar (NCP Ajit Pawar) versus Yugendra Pawar (NCP Sharad Pawar)
Baramati will be witnessing another Pawar Vs Pawar fight in the constituency. The seat had seen another fight of Pawars in the Lok Sabha polls, wherein Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule won against Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra Pawar.
Mankhurd-Shivajinagar
Shivaji Patil (Shinde Sena) versus Nawab Malik (NCP Ajit Pawar) versus Abu Azmi (Samajwadi Party)
Mahayuti will be facing a battle amongst itself as NCP's Malik will fight Shinde Sena's Shivaji Patil (Bullet Patil). This comes after BJP and Shiv Sena did not support Malik's nomination as part of the Mahayuti as he is facing a money laundering probe in connection with Dawood Ibrahim's case. MVA has fielded Abu Azmi of the Samajwadi Party.
Worli
Milind Deora (Shinde Sena) versus Aaditya Thackeray (Sena UBT)
Deora, the former Congress leader who joined the Shiv Sena ahead of the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, has been pitted against Aaditya Thackeray in Worli. Thackeray is confident of the initiatives started by his father such as the Worli-Sewri project and the BDD chawl redevelopment.
Borivali
Sanjay Upadhyay (BJP) versus Sanjay Bhosale (Sena UBT) versus Gopal Shetty (Independent)
BJP has fielded Sanjay Upadhyay, while the Sena (UBT) has picked Sanjay Bhosale. The fight has been made interesting with the entry of Gopal Shetty as an independent. Shetty is a seven-time MLA from the seat, former BMC corporator, and two-term MP from Mumbai North.
Kalyan West
Vishwanath Bhoir (Shinde Sena) versus Sachin Basare (Sena UBT) versus Narendra Pawar (Independent) versus Varun Patil (Independent)
Besides the expected Bhoir versus Basare, there is a fight within the Mahayuti as well as two BJP leaders, ex-BJP MLA Narendra Pawar and BJP’s Kalyan city president Varun Patil, will be contesting from this seat.
Some other key battles include:
- Zeeshan Siddique (NCP Ajit Pawar) versus Varun Sardesai (Sena UBT) versus Trupti Sawant (MNS) on Bandra East
- Manda Vijay Mhatre (BJP) versus Sandeep Naik (NCP Sharad Pawar) on Belapur
- Yamini Jadhav (Shinde Sena) versus Manoj Jamsutkar (Sena UBT) versus Madhukar Chavan (Independent) on Byculla
- Mahesh Sawant (Sena UBT) versus Sada Sarvankar (Shinde Sena) versus Amit Thackeray (MNS) on Mahim
- Shaina NC (Shinde Sena) versus Amin Patel (Congress) on Mumbadevi
- Ajay Choudhari (Sena UBT) versus Bala Nandgaonkar (MNS) on Shivdi
- Ganesh Naik (BJP) versus Vijay Choughule (Shinde Sena) versus MK Madhavi (Sena UBT) on Airoli
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