There are not too many surprises in the Shiv Sena’s first list of 21 candidates announced on Friday for the Lok Sabha elections. The Sena dropped controversial member of Parliament (MP) from Osmanabad, Ravindra Gaikwad, who had hit an Air India staffer at New Delhi airport in 2017. Besides, it has made a change in the Hingoli constituency by nominating its member of the Legislative Assembly from the area.
Mr. Gaikwad has been replaced by Om Raje Nimbalkar, the political opponent of the Nationalist Congress Party strongman Padma Sinh Patil, whose son Rana Jagjit Sinh will be contesting.
Nanded MLA Hemant Patil has been nominated in Hingoli against sitting MP Rajeev Satav from Congress, whose name has not been officially announced by the Congress yet. Mr. Patil was nominated after dropping Ashok Wankhede who lost to Mr. Satav in 2014.
As part of their alliance for the Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is contesting from 25 seats and the Sena 23, among Maharashtra’s 48 seats. The BJP on Thursday announced its first list of candidates, including 16 from Maharashtra. Of the 16, it re-nominated 14 sitting MPs. The other alliance partner also announced its list of 21 candidates from Maharashtra on Friday in a press conference at the Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence Matoshree.
The Sena has not yet announced its candidates for the Palghar and Satara constituencies. It is likely to field Shrinivas Wanaga from Palghar, while Navi Mumbai MLC Narendra Patil is likely to secure the Satara seat. However, this is bound to upset sitting BJP MP Rajendra Gavit who had defected from Congress before the recent by-election.
The Sena usually announces its election candidates through its mouthpiece Saamna, but broke from tradition this time to unveil the list before the media. The party retained most of its MPs, re-nominating all three sitting MPs from Mumbai for the same constituencies: Arvind Sawant (Mumbai South), Rahul Shewale (Mumbai South Central) and Gajanan Kirtikar (Mumbai North West). Senior Sena leader Subhash Desai said the remaining two names will be announced soon.
The party nominated Rajan Vichare (Thane), Shrikant Shinde (Kalyan), Sanjay Mandlik (Kolhapur), Dhairyasheel Mane (Hatkanangale), Hemant Godse (Nashik), and Sadashiv Lokhande (Shirdi), Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil (Shirur), Chandrakant Khaire (Aurangabad), Prataprao Jadhav (Buldhana). , Krupal Tumane (Ramtek), Anandrao Adsul (Amravati), Sanjay Jadhav (Parbhani), Shrirang Barne (Maval), Omraje Nimbalkar (Osmanabad), Hemant Patil (Hingoli), Bhavna Gawli (Yavatmal), Anant Geete (Raigad) and Vinayak Raut (Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri). Thane’s Mr. Vichare was accused of force-feeding a fasting employee during Ramzan in New Delhi.