The BJP’s first list of 99 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election features 71 sitting MLAs, including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is contesting from his home turf in the Nagpur South West seat. State BJP president and Maharashtra Legislative Council member Chandrashekhar Bawankule will return to contest the Kamthi Assembly seat, which he had held for a decade till 2014.
A majority of the candidates on the list belong to the other backward class (OBC), Maratha, and Adivasi communities.
There are 13 women on the list, including Sreejaya Ashokrao Chavan, the daughter of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. She is making her electoral debut from the Bhokar constituency in Nanded district, which was represented by her father when he was with the Congress before switching loyalties to the BJP earlier this year.
Missing names
Of the 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai, the BJP has named 14 sitting MLAs as candidates for the upcoming election. However, its three remaining sitting MLAs from Mumbai — Parag Shah from Ghatkopar East, Bharti Lavekar from Versova, and Sunil Rane from Borivali — have not made it to the first list.
Another prominent name conspicuous by its absence in the first list is Ram Satpute, the sitting MLA from Solapur, and the BJP’s only Lok Sabha candidate from western Maharashtra, who lost this year’s general election to Congress MP Praniti Shinde.
Mr. Bawankule is contesting in place of Kamthi’s sitting MLA, Tekchand Savarkar, who fell out of favour after calling the State’s flagship scheme for women, the Ladki Behin Yojana, a gamble for votes. In 2019, Mr. Bawankule had been dropped as a BJP candidate despite the fact that he had represented the Kamthi seat from 2004 to 2014. The decision had upset the Teli community that Mr. Bawankule belongs to, and had cost the BJP almost 12 seats in Vidarbha.