BJP releases list of 125 names for Maha polls

NEWDELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the names of 125 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls on Tuesday and said it will contest the election in an alliance with the Shiv Sena and some smaller parties.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will contest the polls from the Nagpur South West seat and the Maharashtra unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chandrakant Patil, from Kothrud in Pune, according to the list released by the party’s general secretary, Arun Singh.

Addressing a press conference, Singh said the party had not given t i ckets t o 12 of i t s MLAS.

“The BJP will contest the Maharashtra Assembly election in an alliance with the Shiv Sena and some smaller parties,” he said.

In a joint statement issued by the BJP and the Shiv Sena on Monday, it was announced that the seat-sharing had been finalised between the alliance partners.

The Republican Party of India (A), the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, the Shiv Sangram Sanghatna and the Rayat Kranti Sena are the other constituents in the “Mahayuti” (Grand Alliance).

The Sena is likely to contest 124 seats and the BJP will contest most of the remaining 164, leaving the rest for the smaller allies.

Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya has already announced his candidat ure f rom t he Worli seat i n Mumbai.

He will be the first member of the Thackeray family, which holds the reins of the party, to contest an election.

The BJP and the Sena had contested the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls separately, but had later come together to form the government in the state. The BJP had emerged as the singlelargest party in the 2014 polls with 122 seats, followed by the Sena with 63 in the 288-member House.

Maharashtra will go to polls on October 21 and the results will be declared on October 24.