Namesake candidates in 4 of 11 seats in Maharashtra’s 3rd phase

Four of the 11 seats to go to polls in Maharashtra on May 7 in the third phase of Lok Sabha poll have namesake candidates.

There are two Satyajeet Babaso Patils in the fray, one an independent and another on Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’s (UBT) Shiv Sena ticket.

Three-cornered contest

At Hatkanangle, there is a three-cornered contest among both the Shiv Sena representatives and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatna’s Raju Shetti. Here, it is only Mr. Shetti who does not have a namesake competitor.

On having candidates with similar names other than him, Mr. Shetti was asked if this is his strategy to reduce votes of his rivals, he said, “I haven’t. They have elded them against one another. The sway in votes would not be much, only 5,000 to 10,000.”

In Ratnagiri – Sindhudurg, where there is a close contest between the incumbent Vinayak Raut of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Narayan Rane, Vinayak Lavu Raut an independent candidate is likely to take away a few thousand votes.

“He is likely to takeaway about 4,000 votes. Even I could have done such kind of politics, I have someone by the name Narayan Thattu Rane,” said Mr. Raut of

Shiv Sena (UBT).

At Baramati, where Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule is contesting from her father’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) against family member Sunetra Pawar, wife of Ajit Pawar as an NCP – Ajit Pawar candidate, an independent Sharad Ram Pawar is also in the fray.

Three ‘Anant’s in race

In Raigad, there are three ‘Anant’s in the race. One is Shiv Sena(UBT) Anant Geete, and two independents, Anant Padma Gite and Anant Baloji Geete. In this constituency, Sena’s Geete is challenging the sitting Member of Parliament Sunil Tatkare of NCP (Ajit Pawar).

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