Maharashtra Assembly elections: Congress releases first list of 51 candidates; Amit Deshmukh to contest from Latur, Ashok Chavan from Bhokar

The Congress on Sunday released its first list of 51 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, fielding former chief minister Ashok Chavan from the Bhokar constituency and state party chief Vijay Balasaheb Thorat from Sangamner. Former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son Amit has been fielded from the Latur City seat, while ex-home minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti will contest from the Solapur City Central seat. Senior party leader Nitin Raut, who heads the party’s SC department, has been fielded from the Nagpur North (reserved) constituency.

The Congress Central Election Committee announces the first list of candidates for the ensuing elections to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra pic.twitter.com/LUruU7UNWB

— Congress (@INCIndia) September 29, 2019

The list of candidates was finalised after the party’s Central Election Committee met under the chairmanship of interim party president Sonia Gandhi and cleared the names. Earlier, the CEC was considering around 100 candidates. On Thursday, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Balasaheb Thorat told reporters that the names for 45 seats sent by the screening committee were discussed and 32 were approved. Of the 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra, the Congress and the NCP have decided to contest 125 each, leaving the rest for smaller allies. The Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held on 21 October and results will be out on 24 October. With inputs from PTI