As the date of filing nominations ends, the Opposition stares at friendly fights on a few seats where two different parties have fielded candidates. After hectic seat-sharing discussions, negotiations for withdrawing the candidature are set to continue till October 7.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have both announced candidates for Aheri (ST) in Gadchiroli and Pandharpur in Solapur district. The Congress has also announced a candidate for Bhiwandi East, which was given to the Samajwadi Party (SP) as per the seat-sharing arrangement with the alliance partners.
The Congress has given tickets to Dipak Atram at Aheri (ST) and Shivajirao Kalunge at Pandharpur. The NCP candidates are Dharmaraobaba Atram and Bharat Bhalke for these two seats respectively. Mr. Bhalke, the sitting MLA with the Congress switched sides to join the NCP. Despite that, the Congress refused to give up its stake on the seat.
Maharashtra SP chief Abu Azami announced on Sunday that Bhiwandi East had been given to his party. Party’s Mumbai corporator Rais Sheikh filed his nomination. But on Friday, the Congress announced Santosh Shetty as the party candidate from the same seat.
Similarly, Shiv Sena MLA from Palghar Amit Ghoda joined the NCP on Thursday and was given the AB form to file his nomination. The Congress too has announced Yogesh Nam as its candidate for Palghar. The Congress has also fielded candidates at Pen and Alibaug which are with the ally, the Peasants and Workers Party.
Similarly, the NCP has given ticket to Nitin Pawar at Kalvan (ST) in Nashik district where the sitting MLA is of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
“We have fielded our candidates after due deliberations, surveys, and taking into consideration the opinions of local party leaders. We have given people where we think we have a chance of winning. If there are issues which are brought to us on candidature then we will surely discuss with the NCP and sort them out,” said Ashish Dua, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary, attached to Maharashtra.