For the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the BJP has announced candidates for 20 seats. Verify names

Maharashtra: In preparation for the next Lok Sabha elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unveiled its second list of 72 candidates on Wednesday. Twenty candidates from Maharashtra have been nominated by the party, including former state minister Pankaja Munde and union ministers Nitin Gadkari and Piyush Goyal. The saffron party has so far announced candidates for 20 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats available in Maharashtra.
In the state, the BJP has an alliance with the NCP, headed by Ajit Pawar, and the Shiv Sena, led by Eknath Shinde.

Eight new names were included in the list, including trade minister Piyush Goyal (Mumbai North) and Pankaja Munde (Beed), while two-time Lok Sabha MP Gadkari was renominated by the BJP from his Nagpur constituency.

Pankaja took over as MP Pritam Munde’s younger sister in Beed, the family stronghold.

Since Gadkari’s name was absent from the BJP’s first list, Uddhav Thackeray, the leader of the Shiv Sena (UBT), extended an invitation to him to run as the opposition candidate.

Goyal is a Rajya Sabha member at the moment. Chandrakanta Goyal, his mother, served three years as a Mumbai MLA. Mumbai North is regarded as one of the state’s safest BJP seats.

Sudhir Mungantiwar, the state minister of forests, was another fresh face on the second list (Chandrapur). In addition, tickets were issued to all Maharashtra-born Union ministers once again.

Local leader Smita Wagh was fielded by the party to replace Unmesh Patil, a member of the Lok Sabha from Jalgaon. Sanjay Dhotre, the current MP for Akola, and his father,, Anup Dhotre,, were removed from the list.

Murlidhar Mohol, a former mayor of Pune, was the party’s nominee. Since the passing of the current BJP MP, Girish Bapat, the seat has become empty.

Current MP Manoj Kotak was replaced by MLA Mihir Kotecha, who was fielded from Mumbai North-East.

Remarkably, the party has only announced candidates for two of Mumbai’s six Lok Sabha seats so far.

It had given up three seats to its allies in the last elections, and Shiv Sena has since split.

The late Pramod Mahajan’s daughter Poonam Mahajan won Mumbai North Central on the party ticket in 2014 and 2019; however,, the BJP has not yet announced a candidate for the seat.

The BJP nominated Ramdas Tadas, a two-time MP, again in Wardha, in eastern Maharashtra.

BJP activists in Nagpur let off fireworks as Gadkari’s name was revealed on the second list.

Former Pune mayor Mohol expressed gratitude to the party hierarchy for granting him a ticket.