On Monday, the Nationalist Congress Party Sharad Pawar faction (NCP-SP) announced the candidacy of Ramesh Appa Thorat from Daud assembly seat in Pune district. Thorat, who was once considered a close aide of Ajit Pawar, will be paired with Rahul Kul of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Monday, NCP SP filed seven petitions, including Prabhakar Gharge from Thorat, Man, Salil Anil Deshmukh from Katol, Vaibhav Sadashive Patil from Khanapur, Arunadevi Pisal from Wai, Sharad Maind from Pusad and Sandeep Bedse from Sindhkeda. announced the list of candidates.

The BJP announced the name of Rahul Kul in its first list, who should be close to deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

His wife, Kanchan Kul, fought the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket from Baramati constituency in 2019.

Thorat said, “I have been working for the people of Daund for the last 40 years through MLA or district bank. People know my work and that is why they will definitely elect me again from Daund constituency.”

Thorat was the MLA from Daund constituency between 2009 and 2014. He won the polls as an independent candidate. After the split of NCP. Thorat chose to go with Ajit Pawar. However, in the first week of October, he met Sharad Pawar and expressed his desire to become a candidate from his party.