Parliament Elections 2024 – Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) declares 72 candidates, 20 for Maharashtra constituencies. This list has brought an end to the skepticism and rumors about the most talked about candidate Nitin Gadkari whose name was not included in the first list. Anticipation and rumors were high as Nitin Gadkari is also seen as the strongest contender of the post of Prime Minister.
Another puzzling move taken by the BJP is replacing Pritam Mundhe with her sister Pankaja Mundhe whose moves on several occasions indicated that she would revolt or may join some other party. Very recently, an idea about such drastic change was already made public by Rao Saheb Danve which wasn’t taken seriously as Pritam Mundhe did well during her tenure. If Rao Saheb Danve’s statement holds water in case of Mundhe sisters then the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) public stands confused as recently Rao Saheb Danve also made a public statement about MIM MP Imtiyaz Jaleel. He said, “BJP ko jeetane ke liye Imtiyaz Jaleel ko khada karna padta hi hai (To secure BJPs victory we field Imtiyaz Jaleel). BJP engineering the split of Shiv Sena, Rashtrawadi followed by large scale resentment over Maratha Reservation may pose greater challenges for itself in Maharashtra. The 20 candidates fielded from different constituencies of Maharashtra are:
- Ahmadnagar – Sujay Vikhe Patil
- Akola – Anup Dhotre (Sanjay Dhotre)
- Beed – Pankaja Mundhe (Pritam Mundhe)
- Bhivandi – Kapil Patil
- Chandrapur – Sudheer Mungantivar
- Dhule – Subhash Bhamre
- Dindori – Bharati Pawar
- Jalgaon – Smita Wagh (Unmesh Patil)
- Jalna – Rao Saheb Danve
- Latur – Sudhakar Shringare
- Madha – Ranjitsingh Nimbalkar
- Mumbai (North-Uttar) – Piyush Goyal (Gopal Shetty Age: 70 Yrs.)
- Mumbai (North East – Uttar Purv) – Mihir Kotecha (Manoj Kotak)
- Nagpur – Nitin Gadkari
- Nanded – Pratap Patil Chikhalikar
- Nandurbar – Hina Gavit
- Pune – Murlidhar Mohol
- Raver – Raksha Khadse
- Sangli – Sanjay Kaka Patil
- Wardha – Ramdas Tadas