Undeterred by four and half years of anti-incumbency, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is busy in consolidation and achieve its target set by the national president Amit Shah to win 43 of the 48 seats in an alliance with Shiv Sena. Notwithstanding attack from the opposition for promoting ayaram gayarm culture, BJP is busy rolling out a red carpet for disgruntled as well as leaders with mass following in its fold. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has its say in the selection of party nominees in the state.

BJP has fielded former Congress leader Sujay Vikhe Patil replacing sitting MP Girish Gandhi from Ahmednagar. Vikhe Patil has been pitted against NCP legislator Sangram Jagtap. Party has inducted former MP and son of NCP’s sitting MP Vijaysinh Mohite Patil, Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil. The party may consider his nomination from Madha which was won by his father in 2014 election. BJP also inducted NCP leader Bharati Pawar and nominated from Dindori seat.

BJP while announcing its list of candidates has given priority to elective merits, performance and efforts made in last five years to strengthen party organisation. In order to counter the anti-incumbency, BJP has dropped six sitting MPs by fielding new faces.

Pune MP Anil Shirole has been dropped and the ticket has now gone to Maharashtra Minister Girish Bapat who being the district guardian minister, has been a visible face in the city. Another sitting lawmaker who has been dropped is Sharad Bansode from Solapur.

The BJP has given the ticket to Jaisidhesvar Swami this time. Bansode had defeated Congress veteran and former union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde in 2014 general elections. However, Bansode’s inaction came quite handy for the party not to re-nominate him as he has been replaced by a religious leader Jaisidhesvar Swami against Shinde.

Sitting MP from Dindori Harishchandra Chavan has also been dropped from the seat which is reserved for ST candidates. Chavan won the seat in 2009 and 2014 but this time the BJP has fielded Bharti Pawar who left the NCP and joined the BJP. Bharti Pawar had lost to Harishchandra Chavan by a huge margin in the 2014 polls.

BJP has fielded Kanchan Kul, the wife of Daund legislator Rahul Kul from Baramati, the NCP bastion in Pune district. The NCP's candidate is Supriya Sule, daughter of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Rahul Kul is the MLA from the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh (RSP), a smaller party and an alliance partner of the BJP in Maharashtra.

After controversial video which became viral in social media, BJP has dropped sitting MP AT Nana patil from Jalgaon by fielding party legislator Smita Wagh. NCP nominee and former minister Gulabrao Deokar will fight against Wagh. Fadnavis’ close confidant and state water resources minister Girish Mahajan played a crucial role in recommending Wagh’s nomination to the party high command.

BJP has dropped sitting MP Sunil Gaikwad from Latur seat which is reserved constituency and he has been replaced by the zilla parishad member Sudhakar Shringare. The district guardian minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar, who played major role in BJP’s victory in the local and civic body elections, was instrumental in Shringare’s nomination.

With the latest list, the BJP has declared names of 22 candidates for the 25 seats the party is contesting out of 48 seats in the state. The other 23 seats in the state are being contested by its ally the Shiv Sena. The BJP had won 22 of the 24 Lok Sabha seats that it contested from Maharashtra in 2014 general elections.