The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) led by Raj Thackeray Tuesday released its first list of 45 candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls including the candidature of Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray who is set to contest from Mahim constituency. Currently Mahim is represented by Sada Saravankar of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena. Mahim is a crucial seat since the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv UBT's headquarters Shiv Sena Bhavan also falls within the Mahim constituency and is considered to be the bastion of Sena. The MNS has also fielded party leader Sandeep Deshpande from the Worli seat, which is currently represented by Raj Thackeray’s nephew and Sena UBT leader Aaditya Thackeray. The party has also renominated its lone MLA Raju Patil from Kalyan rural Assembly seat. The MNS has fielded its leader Avinash Jadhav from Thane City which is a stronghold of CM Shinde. The other prominent candidates in the list are Mayuresh Wanjale from Khadakwasla in Pune. Wanjale is the son of former MNS MLA Ramesh Wanjale. The party has also fielded Shirish Sawant from Bhandup West, Sainath Babar from Hadapsar in Pune, Ganesh Chuklal from Ghatkopar West, Ganjanan Kale, a fresh face from Panvel , Ravindra Kothari from Karjat Jamkhed, where NCP (SP)’s Rohit Pawar is the sitting MLA. Raj Thackeray, who had given unconditional support to the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha polls, had announced recently that his party will go solo in the Maharashtra Assembly polls and would contest 200 to 220 seats independently. In the 2019 elections, the MNS managed to win only one seat. Earlier in August, Raj Thackeray had announced MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar as party candidate from Sewri constituency and the candidature of Dilip Dhotre from Pandharpur Assembly constituency.
