Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday announced the names of four of its candidate for the biennial election to Maharashtra Legislative Council to be held on May 21.
The election will be held for nine seats and in case of unopposed polls, BJP will get four seats while Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena two each. Remaining seat will go to the Congress.
Among the four names announced by the BJP include, Gopichand Padalkar, Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Pravin Datke and Dr Ajit Gopchade.
Mr Datke is the Nagpur city president of the BJP while Dr Gopchade hails from Nanded and the state president of BJP's medical cell.
Mr Padalkar, a well-known Dhangar leader in Maharashtra had unsuccessfully contested 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Sangli constituency as a candidate of Prakash Ambedkar led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). He switched sides to join the BJP before State assembly polls and contested against NCP leader and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar from Baramati. Mr Pawar won the election by record margin.
Mr Mohite-Patil is a former NCP leader and son of one of the ex-NCP bigwig, Vikramsinh Mohite-Patil. The Mohite-Patil family had switched to the BJP before Lok Sabha polls and helped the party win prestigious Madha Lok Sabha seat, once held by NCP president Sharad Pawar.