Bharatiya Janata Party State unit president Devendra Fadnavis and Gopinath Munde’s daughter, Pankaja, are among the 223 candidates whose names have been announced by the party for the October 15 Maharashtra Assembly election. Sixteen of the candidates are women.
The first list of 172 candidates released late on Friday evening includes names of 32 sitting MLAs.
On a day when BJP president Amit Shah was in Mumbai, the party released its second list of 51 candidates early on Saturday. September 27 is the last date for filing of nomination papers for the 288 seats.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Eknath Khadse will contest the Muktainagar seat.
Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council Vinod Tawde will fight from Borivali.
Mr. Fadnavis, a chief ministerial aspirant, will contest from Nagpur South-West.
In the 2009 election, the BJP contested 119 seats. Before the failure of its seat-sharing talks with the Shiv Sena, the party was planning to contest 130 seats.
