IN THE first list of 38 candidates released by it, Ajit Pawar has chosen caution, going with most of the sitting MLAs and ministers who picked his NCP faction over uncle Sharad Pawar’s. This will quash talk that there is discontent within the faction led by him, and that senior NCP leaders were considering switching to Pawar Senior. The list also indicates that Ajit Pawar, who has been seen on the backfoot since his party’s 1-seat win in the Lok Sabha polls, managed to drive a hard bargain with the BJP. But, in one major concession to the demand of BJP leaders, the NCP’s list did not include the name of former minister Nawab Malik. Sources said that Malik’s daughter Sana Malik-Sheikh may now get the ticket instead of him from Anushaktinagar, the seat from where he won in the 2019 Assembly elections. BJP leaders have been demanding that Malik be kept out given his alleged association with gangster Dawood Ibrahim. BJP Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar had declared that the party would not campaign for Malik if the NCP fielded him. The other prominent name missing from the NCP list is of Zeeshan Siddique. While he won the 2019 Assembly election from Bandra East as a Congress candidate, Zeeshan was expected to move to the NCP like his father Baba Siddique. But after the murder of Baba Siddique, which happened under the Mahayuti government’s watch, Zeeshan is reportedly being urged by his supporters to remain with the Congress. Other prominent names missing from the NCP’s first list are sitting MLAs Sunil Tingre (Vadgaon-Sheri seat in Pune) and Balasaheb Ajbe (Ashti seat in Beed). Sources said that the two constituencies are set to fall in the BJP’s share within the Mahayuti coalition. One constituency the NCP has been able to gain is Amaravati, which was won by Sulbha Khodke in 2019. Khodke, then in the Congress, joined the NCP Wednesday. The NCP also gets the Pathri seat in Parbhani district, won by the Congress last time. The ticket has gone to NCP MLC Rajesh Vitekar's mother Nirmala.
