Journalism of Courage
Advertisement
Premium

Shiv Sena (UBT) releases first list of 17 candidates for Lok Sabha elections despite Congress opposition

The Shiv Sena (UBT), which is contesting 22 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, said it would field wrestler Chandrahar Patil from Sangli and Amol Kirtikar from Mumbai North West – two seats the Congress was eyeing.

Shiv Sena OppositionThe Shiv Sena (UBT) has released its list at a time when the MVA Opposition alliance is yet to arrive at a consensus on the candidates for all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. (Photo: PTI)

The Shiv Sena (UBT) on Wednesday announced its first list of 17 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra despite Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance partner Congress’s opposition to seats like Mumbai South West, Bhiwandi and Sangli.

This is the second list by the MVA. While the Congress has already announced its first list of candidates, sources said the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) is set to announce its candidates for the Lok Sabha elections soon.

“With the permission of Uddhav Thackeray, we have announced 17 candidates for the Lok Sabha seats today. We are contesting 22 seats. The remaining candidates of Palghar, Hatkanangale, Kalyan-Dombivli and Mumbai North will be announced in 24 hours or two days,” Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has released its list at a time when the MVA Opposition alliance is yet to arrive at a consensus on the candidates for all the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.

More News from Mumbai | Follow Live Updates

The Shiv Sena (UBT) has fielded popular wrestler Chandrahar Patil from Sangli despite the Congress being keen on contesting from its former bastion. “There are several issues which are pending…airport, logistic park, good roads,” said Patil after his name was announced.

Similarly, Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam was vying for the Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency. But the Shiv Sena (UBT) has announced Amol Kirtikar’s name for the seat. Amol’s father Gajanan Kirtikar, who defeated Nirupam in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, is the sitting MP from the seat. Gajanan Kirtikar is now with the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction).

Raut, however, insisted that there were no seat-sharing disputes in the MVA, either over Sangli or other seats in Mumbai. “Since we have announced the seats, that means there is no dispute in the seat-sharing among the MVA. The Congress also announced the Ramtek seat but we did not say anything… that means they felt we had no objections. So I think there is no dispute on the Sangli seat and the issue has already been resolved,” Raut said.

Story continues below this ad

“Kolhapur was our seat but since Shahu Maharaj had decided to contest on a Congress ticket, we have no problem. We don’t have a candidate in western Maharashtra and that is why we have decided to contest the Sangli seat,” he added.


Raut also commented on the stalemate with the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). “We still hope that the VBA will join us. We are waiting for his (Prakash Ambedkar’s) response,” Raut said.

As expected, the Sena (UBT) has fielded Sanjog Waghere from the Maval Lok Sabha constituency. He will most probably take on sitting MP Appa Barne, who has been claiming that his name has been cleared by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The Maval seat falls in Pune and Raigad districts. Three Assembly seats are in the Pune district while three are in the Raigad district.

Other candidates fielded by the Sena include all its sitting MPs, like Vinayak Raut from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, Omraje Nimbalkar from Osmanabad (Dharashiv), Sanjay Jadhav from Parbhani, Arvind Sawant from Mumbai South and Sanjay Deshmukh from Yavatmal-Washim.

Anil Desai has been fielded from Mumbai South Central. Congress’s Varsha Gaikwad, who is currently the Mumbai district president of the party, has been vying for this Lok Sabha seat. The Dharavi redevelopment project comes under the Mumbai South Central constituency.

Story continues below this ad

Rajan Vichare, who has been renominated from Thane, said, “This fight is between a loyalist and traitors. Thanekars will give a befitting reply to those who ditched the Shiv Sena.”

The Sena has fielded Narendra Khedekar from Yavatmal, Anant Gite from Raigad, Chandrakant Khaire from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Narendra Khedekar from Buldhana, Nagesh Patil Ashitkar from Hingoli, Bhausaheb Waghchoure from Shirdi and Sanjay Dina Patil from Mumbai East.

The Shiv Sena (UBT) list:

1) Buldhana – Narendra Khedekar

2) Yavatmal-Washim – Sanjay Deshmukh

3) Mawal – Sanjog Waghere Patil

4) Sangli – Chandrahar Patil

5) Hingoli – Nagesh Patil Ashtikar

6) Sambhajinagar – Chandrakant Khaire

7) Dharashiv – Omraj Nimbalkar

8) Shirdi – Bhausaheb Waghchore

9) Nashik – Rajabhau Waje

10) Raigad – Anant Gite

11) Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri – Vinayak Raut

12) Thane – Rajan Vichare

13) Mumbai North East – Sanjay Dina Patil

14) Mumbai South – Arvind Sawant

15) Mumbai North West – Amol Kirtikar

16) Parbhani – Sanjay Jadhav

17) Mumbai South Central – Anil Desai

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram

Tags:
  • Congress Lok Sabha Elections 2024 shiv sena Uddhav Thackeray
Edition
Install the Express App for
a better experience
Featured
Trending Topics
News
Multimedia
Follow Us
Express ExplainedWhat will it mean for Chandigarh if it is brought under Article 240?
X