Maharashtra Assembly elections: NCP releases first list of five candidates; Dhananjay Munde to contest from Parli, Sandip Kshirsagar from Beed

Beed: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP )chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday released the party’s first list of five candidates, including senior leader Dhananjay Munde, for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. [caption id=“attachment_6839891” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of NCP leader Dhananjay Munde. Twitter/@dhananjay_munde[/caption] Pawar made the announcement at a meeting of NCP workers in Beed district, the party said on Twitter. The NCP has fielded Dhananjay Munde, who is at present leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, from Beed’s Parli Assembly seat, setting up his possible clash with cousin and state minister Pankaja Munde yet again. Pankaja defeated her cousin in the 2014 Assembly polls from Parli by 25,895 votes. Besides, the NCP patriarch also declared the candidature of four other party leaders - Sandip Kshirsagar (from Beed seat), Vijaysinh Pandit (Gevrai), Prakash Solanke (Majalgaon) and Namita Mundada (Kaij). The Beed Assembly seat is currently represented by Sandip Kshirsagar’s uncle and state minister Jaydutt Kshirsagar, who quite the NCP and joined the Shiv Sena earlier this year. The NCP suffered a setback recently after some of its senior leaders joined the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Sena.