By Tejas Navale
Pune, October 26, 2024: The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction) has released its second list of candidates for the upcoming state assembly elections, adding 22 new names to its lineup. This comes two days after the party released its first list, which named 45 candidates. With this new list, the party has announced a total of 67 candidates.
Notably, the party in this list has announced its candidates in key constituencies of the Pune district, including Pimpri, Junnar, Khadakwasla, and Parvati constituencies. From Pimpri, the party has announced the name of Sulakshana Shilwant, whereas from Junnar, the party has given ticket to Satyasheel Sherkar. Further, the party has given tickets to Sachin Dodke and Ashwini Kadam from Khadakwasla and Parvati assemblies, respectively.
Earlier, in the first list, the party announced its candidates from six constituency assemblies from Pune, featuring Indapur, Ambegaon, Shirur, Vadgaon Sheri, Baramati, and Hadapsar. With this new set of candidates, NCP (SP) has now nominated candidates for nine of Pune’s 21 assembly constituencies.
In the newly declared matchups, Satyasheel Sherkar will challenge NCP’s Atul Benke in Junnar, and Sulakshana Shilwant will go up against NCP’s Anna Bansode in Pimpri. In Parvati, Ashwini Kadam will face off with the BJP’s Madhuri Misal. As for Khadakwasla, where the Mahayuti coalition has yet to announce its candidate, Sachin Dodke will contest on behalf of the NCP (SP).
Significantly, the NCP (SP) party’s first list included six constituencies where its all Pune candidates will compete directly against the NCP’s (Ajit Pawar faction). With the current list, the party will face its split faction in eight assemblies in the city, which can further increase to ten, if the party fields its candidates from Maval and Khed-Alandi, where the NCP’s sitting MLAs are once again in the electoral fray.
Notably, the NCP (SP) party has still not announced its candidates from key constituencies such as Chinchwad, Maval, Daund, and Khed-Alandi. The party has so far declared 67 its candidates. With the party expected to contest to around 90 to 95 seats, it will be interesting to watch whether these constituencies will find place in the party’s third list or not.