Maharashtra Assembly polls: Congress releases 2nd list of 23 candidates

The Congress on Saturday released its second list of 23 candidates for the November 10 Assembly elections in Maharashtra.

The list came after the party's Central Election Committee met and discussed the names of the candidates for the polls.

The Congress declared 48 candidates in its first list. With this list, the Congress has now announced 71 candidates.

The opposition party had retained 25 incumbent MLAs in its first list of nominees.

The Congress has also asserted that there were no differences in the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition and the final seat-sharing arrangement among its constituents will be out by Saturday evening.

Speaking to reporters after the CEC meeting on Friday, party leader Ramesh Chennithala said the Congress CEC held a discussion on the remaining seats of Maharashtra.

"The MVA is contesting unitedly and we have no differences," Chennithala, who is the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge for Maharashtra, said.

"We will fight together to realise the dreams of the people of Maharashtra. We are confident that MVA will form the government. People are ready to throw out this corrupt government," Chennithala said.

PCC chief Nana Patole said the MVA will perform better in the Assembly polls than in the Lok Sabha polls, and the MVA will form a full majority government.

"We, the MVA, are all set to sweep the upcoming assembly elections," Venugopal said in a post on X after the deliberations.

He also shared pictures of the CEC meeting on the microblogging platform.

The Congress announced its first list of 48 candidates for the Maharashtra polls on Thursday, fielding Patole from Sakoli, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan from Karad South and Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly Vijay Wadettiwar from Brahmapuri.