Maharashtra Chief Minister among 118 Congress nominees for Assembly polls; seat sharing deal with NCP still not finalised

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan and several of his cabinet colleagues figure in the list of 118 Congress candidates for the October 15 Assembly polls announced by the AICC late on Wednesday. The announcement of the Congress nominees have been made even as there has been no finality on the seat sharing with Sharad Pawar's NCP with which the party is sharing power in the state for the past 15 years.
Chavan, a member of the state Legislative Council at present, has been nominated from the Karad South seat in his home district of Satara.

Several of his cabinet colleagues as also senior leaders figure in the list including campaign committee chief Narayan Rane from Kudal, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil from Shirdi, Balasaheb Thorat from Sangamner, Rajendra Darda from Aurangabad East and Harshvardhan Patil from Indapur, Patangrao Kadam from Palus Kadegaon seat. Rohit Deepak Tilak, son of great grandson of Lokmanya Tilak, is the Congress nominee from Kasba Peth in Pune city. Amit Deshmukh son of late Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Praneti Shinde, daughter of former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, have been renominated from their seats in Latur and Solapur districts respectively. Though the last date for filing nominations is September 27, Congress and NCP have failed to hammer out a seat sharing agreement so far. The state has 288 seats in the Assembly.