Prithviraj Chavan, Nana Patole in Congress’s first list of 48 candidates

Congress on Thursday announced the first list of 48 candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. Senior leaders Nana Patole and Prithviraj Chavan made the cut for the first list. Congress fielded former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan from Karad South, while former Minister Nitin Raut was once again fielded from Nagpur North.
The opposition party also fielded Balasaheb Thorat from Nagpur North and Sangamner respectively, Jyoti Eknath Gaikwad from Dharavi, Amit Deshmukh from Latur City and Dheeraj Deshmukh from Latur Rural.
Congress’s announcement came hours after the National Congress Party (SP) announced its first list of 45 candidates. One crucial candidature announced was that of Yugendra Pawar, who will take on his uncle and Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar from Baramati. The announcement of the candidates comes amid the ongoing seat-sharing talks in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance.
The MVA earlier decided that Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) and Shiv Sena (UBT) would contest for 85 seats each. However, the seat-sharing talks are still on for the remaining 33 seats in the 288-member Assembly. Congress aims to repeat its success in the Lok Sabha polls as the party won 13 of the 17 seats it contested.
Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and the results will be out on November 23.