Maharashtra Election 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday announced its third list of 25 candidates, including two former Congress members and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ personal assistant, for the upcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. This latest announcement takes the total number of candidates declared by the BJP for the 288-member assembly to 146. The polls will be held on November 20 and the results will be announced on November 23.

Among the notable candidates, Jitesh Antapurkar, who had earlier won a bypoll in 2021 on a Congress ticket and is known to have a close relationship with former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, will contest from Deglur constituency. Chavan recently left the Congress to join the BJP and has since been appointed as a Rajya Sabha MP.

Archana Patil-Chakurkar, Congress veteran and daughter-in-law of former Lok Sabha Speaker Shivraj Patil, was also evicted from the Latur City seat after joining the BJP from the Congress in March this year.

Sumit Wankhede, who has been Devendra Fadnavis’ personal assistant for several years, will represent the BJP from Arvi assembly constituency. The BJP had earlier given a ticket from Ausa in 2019 to Fadnavis’ former PA Abhimanyu Pawar, who won the seat and later became an MLC.

In a few changes, Borivali MLA Sunil Rane has been replaced by Sanjay Upadhyay, while MLC Praveen Datke will contest from Nagpur Central seat. Also, Ashish Deshmukh, son of former Congress state president Ranjeet Deshmukh, got a ticket from Savner in Nagpur district. Sitting MLA Bharti Lavekar has been re-nominated to contest from Versova seat in Mumbai.

The third list includes four women candidates: Bharti Lavekar, Archana Patil-Chakurkar, Sneha Dube, who will be contesting from Vasai seat in Palghar district, and Sai Prakash Dahake, who will be contesting from Karanja in Washim.

Here is the list of all the BJP candidates announced in the third list for the Maharashtra Assembly elections:

• Harish Marotirao Pimple – Murtijapur (SC)
• Sai Prakash Dhake – Karanja
• Rajesh Shriram Wankhade – Teosa
• Umesh (Chandu) Atamaramji Yawalkar – Morshi
• Sumit Kishor Wankhede – Arvi
• Charansingh Babulalji Thakur – Katol
• Ashish Raje Deshmukh – Savner
• Pravin Prabhakarrao Datke – Nagpur Central
• Sudhakar Vitthalrao Kohale – Nagpur West
• Dr. Milind Pandurang Mane – Nagpur North (SC)
• Avinash Anandrao Brahmankar – Sakoli
• Kishor Gajananrao Jorgewar – Chandrapur (SC)
• Raju Narayan Todsam – Arni (ST)
• Kishan Maruti Wankhede – Umarkhed (SC)
• Jitesh Raosaheb Antapurkar – Deglur (SC)
• Vinod Suresh Medha – Dahanu (ST)
• Sneha Premnath Dube – Vasai
• Sanjay Upadhyay – Borivali
• Bharati Hemant Lavekar – Versova
• Parag Kishorchandra Shah – Ghatkopar East
• Suresh Ramchandra Dhas – Ashti
• Archana Shailesh Patil Chakurkar – Latur City
• Ram Vitthal Satpute – Malshiras (SC)
• Manoj Bhimrao Ghorpade – Karad North
• Sangram Sampatrao Deshmukh – Palus-Kadegaon

Meanwhile, the party also fielded Santuk Marotrao Hambarde as its candidate for the Nanded Lok Sabha by-election today.

Maharashtra Election 2024: Second List of BJP

This announcement comes after the second list of the BJP released on October 26, which included 22 candidates. In the second list, prominent names like Devayanai Pharande from Nashik Central and Prakash Bharsakle from Akot were nominated again. It also fielded several new candidates like Deorao Holi from Gadchiroli (ST) where Milind Narode replaced incumbent legislators.

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With the publication of the third list, the BJP has so far announced candidates for 146 seats in the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly, aiming to win a majority in the upcoming elections.