Maharashtra Elections, Shiv Sena candidate list: In the run-up to the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena party has announced its first list of 45 candidates, featuring Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who has been fielded from the Kopri-Pachpakhadi Assembly constituency, while Sada Sarvankar will go head-to-head against Amit Thackeray, Raj Thackeray’s son, in Mahim.
The state will vote on November 20 in a single-phase election for the 288-member assembly, with the results coming out on November 23.
Among other key candidates are Manisha Ravindra Waykar from Jogeshwari (East), Suhas Dwarkanath Kande from Nandgaon, Pradip Shivnarayan Jaiswal from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Middle), and Balaji Devidasrao Kalyankar from Nanded North.
On October 18, after Maharashtra’s assembly election dates were announced, Shiv Sena gathered its office bearers for a key meeting on Friday. During the meeting, there was a strong demand to project Chief Minister Eknath Shinde as the face of the party for the top post, highlighting the party’s game plan ahead of the elections. Shiv Sena party members enthusiastically chanted slogans supporting Shinde as CM, insisting that the saffron flag must continue to fly high.
The meeting, led by Shiv Sena leader and MP Shrikant Shinde, saw the presence of senior party leaders like Milind Deora, Ravindra Waikar, Manisha Kayande, Rahul Shewale, and others.
As the battle for Maharashtra heats up, both the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) are ramping up their election strategies for the 288 Assembly seats. The BJP, part of the Mahayuti alliance, stands alongside Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction) and Ajit Pawar’s NCP, while the MVA brings together Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress.
In the 2019 Maharashtra polls, BJP bagged 105 seats, Shiv Sena secured 56, and Congress won 44 seats. Back in 2014, the BJP took 122 seats, Shiv Sena got 63, and Congress ended up with 42.