Mumbai: Pankaja Munde as an alternative of Pritam Munde, Piyush Goyal as an alternative of Gopal Shetty, a 3rd time period for Nitin Gadkari and a push for Sudhir Mungantiwar to enter nationwide politics. In its first record of candidates for Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave nominations to a few of its strongest names from the state, repeating many of the incumbents.
In its second record of candidates revealed Wednesday, the BJP introduced 20 candidates from Maharashtra, which sends 48 MPs to the Lok Sabha.
Party sources say that the BJP’s seat-sharing take care of its allies in Maharashtra — the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) — is sort of finalised with the Sena more likely to get 13 seats, the NCP 4 and the BJP 31.
According to leaders from the BJP and the Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the constituencies from which the BJP has named its candidates are stated to be the occasion’s undisputed seats.
“The 20 seats for which the BJP has named candidates are those where the party has sitting MPs. The seat sharing formula is also almost finalised by now, so we have no problem with the party naming its candidates for the seats it is anyway going to contest,” a sitting MP from the Shinde-led Sena stated.
In the record of 20 candidates, the BJP has principally repeated incumbents, dropping solely 5 names — Pritam Munde from the Beed constituency, Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North, Manoj Kotak from Mumbai North East, Unmesh Patil from Jalgaon and Sanjay Dhotre from Akola.
While Pritam’s candidature has been given to her sister Pankaja, Dhotre’s candidature has gone to his son Anup.
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The Munde sisters
The Munde sisters — daughters of late BJP stalwart Gopinath Munde — have been perceived to be sidelined inside the BJP for the previous greater than 5 years. Former Union minister Gopinath Munde was instrumental in growing a powerful Other Backward Classes (OBC) voter base for the BJP in Maharashtra.
Talks concerning the doable substitute of sitting Beed MP Pritam Munde along with her sister Pankaja had been gaining floor over the previous six months, although the latter had on a lot of events stated that she doesn’t intend to contest from her sister’s seat.
A BJP chief, nevertheless, advised ThePrint that the occasion management thought Pankaja was a stronger candidate than her sister Pritam. Moreover, Pankaja’s turf, the meeting seat of Parli within the Beed district, is now disputed with the BJP’s tie up with the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, he added.
Pankaja had misplaced the seat within the 2019 meeting election to her cousin Dhananjay Munde, who’s now a part of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and can be a minister within the Shinde-led Maharashtra authorities.
In September final 12 months, a snubbed Pankaja had undertaken an eight-day pilgrimage of Maharashtra’s Shakti Peeths and jyotirlingas, addressing massive crowds at every cease and assembly key leaders from throughout events to spice up her personal political model.
Homecoming for Piyush Goyal
The chance of Gopal Shetty, two-time MP from the Mumbai North constituency, was additionally being talked about inside the state’s BJP unit over the previous few months.
Speaking to media individuals, Shetty stated, “It is not a small thing for someone to win elections seven times and gain the support of so many people. Whatever I have gained, I will keep it in my heart and mind and live my life.” Shetty was a two-term MLA and a three-time corporator within the Mumbai civic physique earlier than changing into an MP.
The BJP changed Shetty with one among its strongest candidates — Piyush Goyal, a Union minister and chief of the home within the Rajya Sabha, who hails from Mumbai’s Sion neighbourhood and has seen political life from shut quarters since his childhood.
His father Vedprakash Goyal was an lively politician and served as Union transport minister within the Atal Bihari Vajpayee authorities and because the nationwide treasurer for the BJP. His mom, Chandrakanta, was a three-term MLA.
The Goyal residence in Sion would all the time be abuzz with political exercise, with the household recognized to host a number of tall BJP leaders after they have been in Mumbai.
Sion is a part of the Mumbai South Central constituency, on which the Shinde-led Shiv Sena has staked declare. In a message on social media platform X, Goyal conveyed his gratitude “as a Mumbaikar” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP President J.P. Nadda and Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.
As a Mumbaikar, I categorical my heartfelt gratitude to PM Shri @NarendraModi ji, Home Minister Shri @AmitShah ji, BJP National President Shri @JPNadda ji and Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra Shri @Dev_Fadnavis ji for my nomination because the Lok Sabha candidate from Mumbai North.…
— Piyush Goyal (मोदी का परिवार) (@PiyushGoyal) March 13, 2024
Candidates for 4 of 10 Vidarbha seats
Of the 20 seats, for which the BJP introduced candidates in Maharashtra, 4 are from Vidarbha. The area sends a complete of 10 MPs to the Lok Sabha and is one among BJP’s strongholds in Maharashtra.
The BJP’s second record named two-time MP Nitin Gadkari, whose exclusion from the first record had drawn criticism from the Opposition. Gadkari, a minister within the Modi authorities, has up to now stood out as one of many few leaders to marketing campaign on his personal identify as an alternative of PM Modi’s.
On different seats, the BJP has determined to repeat sitting MP Ramdas Tadas from Wardha, whereas nominating sitting MP Sanjay Dhotre’s son Anup from his constituency of Akola. The occasion has additionally fielded state cupboard minister Mungantiwar, who has been the state occasion president, from Chandrapur, which the Congress had received in 2019.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
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