NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday released its third list of 16 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
With the third list, the party has declared 87 candidates so far for the November 20 elections to the 288-member Assembly. Its talks with allies NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) for seat-sharing are still underway.
Senior leader Manikrao Thakare, a former state Congress chief and party’s Goa in-charge, was fielded from the Digras constituency in Yavatmal district. Nanded South MLA Mohanrao Hambarde was retained, while Kolhapur North MLA Jayashri Jadhav was replaced with Rajesh Latkar.
Nivruttirao Kamble was fielded from Deglur in place of sitting MLA Jitesh Antapurkar who has crossed over to the BJP. Lakhibhau Jadhav was fielded from Igatpuri in place of sitting MLA Hiraman Koskar who has switched his loyalties to the NCP.
Asif Zakaria would contest from Vandre West, taking on Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, while Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant was fielded from Andheri West.
Earlier today, the party also released its second list of 23 candidates. It features three women candidates and only one sitting MLA Kailash Gorantyal from the Jalna Assembly seat.
The Nagpur South seat, which had become a bone of contention between the Congress and ally Shiv Sena (UBT), went to the Congress. Girish Pandav has been named the party candidate from that seat. The Congress has fielded Dr Rajesh Tukaram Manvatkar from the Bhusawal (SC) constituency. The party has fielded Anuja S Kedar, wife of former minister and five-term MLA Sunil C Kedar, from Savner in Nagpur district. Sunil was convicted in a graft case and disqualified. Anuja had earlier said she would contest the elections as an Independent.
The list also includes names of Swati Wakekar (Jamod), Mahesh Gange (Akot), Shekhar Shende (Wardha), Girish Pandav (Nagpur South), Pooja Thavker (Bhandara), Dalip Banson (Arjuni-Morgaon), Rajkumar Puram (Amgaon), Vasant Purke (Ralegaon), Anil Balasaheb Mangulkar (Yavatmal), Jitendra Moghe (Arni), Sahebrao Kamble (Umarkhed), Kailas Gorantyal (Jalna), and Madhukar Deshmukh (Aurangabad East), Vijay Patil (Vasai), Kalu Bhadeliya (Kandivali East), Yashwant Singh (Charkop), Ganesh Kumar Yadav (Sion-Koliwada), Hemant Ogle (Srirampur), Abhay K Salunkhe (Nilanga) and Ganpatrao Patil (Shirol), Suresh Yadavrao Bhoyar (Kamthi).
The Congress had earlier released its first list of 48 candidates on October 24. The party is contesting the elections in an alliance with Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Uddhavy Thackeray’s Shiv Sena.