Maha Assembly Polls: BJP releases second list of 14 candidates

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday released its second list of 14 candidates who will be contesting in the upcoming Maharashtra assembly polls.

Former Congress MLA Gopaldas Agarwal, who was recently inducted into BJP, has been fielded from Gondiya constituency.

Ramesh Mawaskar will be contesting from the reserved constituency, Melghat. Namita Mundada will be contesting from the reserved constituency, Kaij; Nilay Naik from Pusad and Gopichand Padalkar has been fielded from Baramati constituency.

However, Senior Maharashtra BJP leader Eknath Khadse's name was not mentioned in the list of candidates even after the members of Leva Patil community mounted pressure on BJP demanding a ticket for Khadse on Wednesday, a day after he failed to make a cut in the party's first list of candidates for Maharastra Assembly elections.

BJP on Tuesday announced the first list of 125 candidates for the Assembly polls in Maharashtra election, which are scheduled to be held on October 21.

Prominent figures who have been fielded again include Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will contest from Nagpur South-West seat, state unit party chief Chandrakant Patil from Kothrud and Pankaja Munda from Parli.

Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, who quit the Congress and joined the BJP recently, will be contesting from Shirdi whereas State Minister Girish Mahajan has been given the ticket from Jamner. Fadnavis' personal assistant (PA) Abhimanyu Pawar has also been fielded from Ausa.

In addition to these, the BJP also announced that Udayanraje Bhosale will be the party candidate for the Lok Sabha by-poll to be held in Satara constituency.

In the 2014 Assembly elections, the BJP and the Shiv Sena had fought separately. The BJP had won 122 seats while the Shiv Sena won 63 seats. Later, the two parties allied to form the government in the state.