First list of candidates announced by BJP-Shiv Sena; misses out prominent names

Mumbai: The BJP and the Shiv Sena have released their first list of candidates naming almost 195 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly election which will be held on October 21. The saffron alliance officially announced that, both the parties would fight the Maharashtra Assembly election together on Sunday. A day later, both the parties nominated 195 candidates.

While nominating the first 125 candidates for the Assembly election, BJP dropped 12 sitting MLAs. Meanwhile the Shiv Sena declared 70 candidates which mostly including the sitting MLAs. In the first list the BJP has retained it's 52 MLAs.

In the first list of the BJP, many prominent names were missing from the list. Ministers such as Vinod Tawde, Dilip Kamble did not make it into the list. Prominent leaders such as Prakash Mehta, Eknath Khadse, Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Tara Singh were also missing from the list. However, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Cabinet colleagues Girish Mahajan, Jaikumar Rawal, Pankaja Munde, Babanrao Lonikar and others have been posted in their existing orders.

The list also had names of big leaders such as Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Harshvardhan Patil, Abdul Sattar, Kalidas Kolambkar and others who recently joined the BJP- Shiv sena after quitting the Congress and the NCP.

In a surprising twist, Chief Minister's personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar has been given ticket from Ausa in Latur district.

In the first time, Aditya Thackeray will be the first Thackeray to contest election. On Monday, Shiv Sena officially announced and gave AB form to Aditya Thackeray to contest the Assembly election. Aditya will fight from Worli constituency.

The second list of BJP is expected to come on Wednesday.