Maharashtra polls: NCP releases first list, Ajit Pawar to contest from Baramati

Nationalist Congress Party chief Ajit Pawar will contest the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections from family bastion Baramati, the party announced on Wednesday.
NCP is contesting the elections in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiv Sena.
Voting for all 288 seats will be held in a single phase on November 20, while results will be declared on November 23.
On Tuesday, Shiv Sena released its first list of 45 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde will contest from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi Assembly constituency.
Other candidates include Manisha Ravindra Waykar for Jogeshwari (East), Suhas Dwarkanath Kande from Nandgao, Pradip Shivnarayan Jaiswal from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Middle), and Balaji Devidasrao Kalyankar from Nanded North.
Sada Sarvankar has been nominated to contest from the Mahim seat against Amit Thackeray, son of Raj Thackeray.
During a recent meeting on October 18, the party advocated for CM Shinde to be positioned as the chief ministerial candidate.
As the polling date draws near, both the ruling Mahayuti alliance comprising the BJP alongside the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and Ajit Pawar-led NCP and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) — comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress — have intensified their preparations.
In the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, the BJP won 105 seats, the Shiv Sena secured 56, and the Congress obtained 44. In 2014, the BJP claimed 122 seats, the Shiv Sena won 63, and the Congress garnered 42 seats.
Top leaders of the opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance met in Mum late Tuesday night with indications that the seat-sharing arrangement for the assembly elections has been finalised.
The MVA comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP).
After the talks, especially those between the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress, hit a roadblock, senior state Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat first met NCP (SP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday and then Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray.