RETURN OF THE DYNAST
Six descendants of senior leaders in fray; out of 51 candidates, nine are new faces; Ashok Chavan and Balasaheb Thorat among seniors
There is no getting away from dynasty. The first list announced by the Congress party on Sunday has at least half a dozen names, which have made it by virtue of their political lineage.
Among these are Praniti Shinde, daughter of former Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Amit Deshmukh, son of former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Vishwajeet Kadam, son of former minister Patangrao Kadam, Varsha Gaikwad, daughter of Mumbai Congress Chief Eknath Gaikawd, Shirish Chaudhari, son of former speaker Madhukraro Chaudhari, and Amit Zanak, son of former legislator Subhash Zanak.
Prominent among the regulars are former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and state congress president Balasaheb Thorat. The party has decided to field Chavan from Bhokar assembly constituency in Nanded, instead of his wife and sitting legislator Amita Chavan.
Most of the candidates are sitting legislators. But the Congress has also opted for nine new faces: Rohit Salve from Ambernath, Zishan Siddiqui from Bandra East, Ganesh Jadhav from Sion Koliwada and Suresh Koparkar from Bhandup West, Maulabi Bashumiya Sayeed from Solapur South, Ruturaj Patil from Kolhapur South, Anant Wankhede from Mehkar in Buldhana district, Anil Mangrulkar from Yavatmal and Satish Warjurkar for Chimur in Chandrpaur district.
The party did not give a ticket to Rahul Thackeray, son of its former state chief Manikaro Thackeray. Rahul had lost last the previous assembly election.
The Congress party has announced 11 candidates for Mumbai and Thane, giving one more chance to Chandrakant Handore, former Social Justice Minister, to contest from Chembur; Varsha Gaikwad, former Women and Child Development Minister, will contest from Dharavi.
MP's wife gets ticket
In the Lok Sabha election, the Congress party had won the lone seat of Chandrapur. It was won by Suresh Dhanorkar who had left the Shiv Sena to join the Congress. Dhanorkar was aggressively lobbying for a ticket for his wife Pratibha. But there was stiff competition from Vijay Deotale, a Congress loyalist. Eventually, Deotale lost to Dhanorkar's wife.
5 MLAs to join BJP
The BJP has organised a special programme on Monday at noon in Garware Club. This place is better known as the party’s venue of mega-recruitment. Five sitting MLAs of the Congress party are expected to join the BJP and one -- Aslam Shaikh, legislator from Malad West in Mumbai – will join the Sena. Those joining the BJP are:
Rahul Bondre Buldhana from Chikhali in Buldhana; Kashiram Pawra from Shirpur district; DS Ahire from Sakri district; former minister Siddaram Mhatre from Akalkot, Solapur district, and Bharat Bhalke from Pandharpur Solapur district.