File photo: Congress leader Narayan Rane
The Congress has declared a third set of candidates on the last day of filing nominations for the Maharashtra assembly elections. The list includes three names which will replace the candidates previously declared as the party's official contenders from Dhule Rural, Hadapsar and Kinwat seats.
With this list, the Congress has declared candidates for all 288 seats in the state as its alliance with the Samajwadi Party is all but over in just three days after Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan first announced it.
Senior Congress leader Narayan Rane, who is already a candidate from Kudal, has managed to find his son Nitesh a spot from Kankavli in this last list and has also filed his nomination papers.
Meanwhile, the BJP declared its second list candidates - with 51 names -- in the wee hours of Saturday. The BJP has put up 223 candidates out of the 288 seats for the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
The remaining seats are expected to be taken by allies who were originally part of the 'Mahayuti' or grand alliance forged between six parties, including the Shiv Sena. After the BJP pulled the plug on its alliance with the Sena, parties like the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana have decided to stay with it.
The BJP has given a ticket to 34 sitting legislators, besides Members of Legislative Assembly like Babanrao Pachpute, who was earlier a legislator of the Nationalist Congress Party or NCP and Ram Kadam, who has recently defected from Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Dr. Vijaykumar Gavit, who lost his ministerial berth in the ruling Congress-NCP cabinet after his daughter joined the BJP, has been rewarded by the party with a ticket to contest from Nandurbar, represented by his daughter Dr. Heena Gavit in the Lok Sabha.
The NCP has also released a list of 131 candidates. The party has decided to field Dhananjay Munde, estranged nephew of late Gopinath Munde, against his daughter Pankaja from the Parli constituency in Beed, where she is seeking a re-election.
But that's not the only family connection in the NCP list.
Public Works Department Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and his son Pankaj have got tickets from constituencies in Nashik, as have minister Ganesh Naik and his son Sandeep. Dharamrao Baba Atram and his wife Bhagyashree are contesting from the two seats in Gadchiroli.
NCP state President Sunil Tatkare's nephew Avdhoot, former president Madhukarrao Pichad's son Vaibhav and Legislative Council Deputy Chairman Vasant Davkhare's son Niranjan have all been given tickets.
Today is the last day for filing nominations for the assembly elections that will be held on October 15.