Maharashtra Assembly Polls: Congress, NCP announce more candidates; Samajwadi Party joins alliance

The NCP-Congress alliance in Maharashtra has been joined by several smaller parties including the Samajwadi Party (SP) to contest the upcoming assembly elections in the state. 

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) also released a list of 77 seats, fielding party chief Sharad Pawar's nephew and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar from Baramati and senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal from Yeola constituency.

The list has another member of the Pawar family, Rohit Pawar - a grandnephew of the NCP President. Rohit will make his electoral debut from Karjat Jamkhed in Ahmednagar district.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) releases its first list of 77 candidates for #MaharashtraAssemblyPolls. https://t.co/olLlVtjTPW pic.twitter.com/tRCwuSY17l

— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2019

The Congress also released its third list of candidates, naming 20 candidates for the upcoming polls where the alliance is facing a formidable NDA led by the BJP. 

In its first list on Sunday, the Congress had named candidates for 51 seats. On Tuesday, the Congress released its second list of 52 party candidates. While Prithviraj Chavan will contest from Karad South, Ashok Chavan has been fielded from Bhoker.

Congress party releases a list of 20 candidates for the upcoming elections to the legislative assembly of Maharashtra. #MaharashtraAssemblyPolls pic.twitter.com/37T2Cse4vI

— ANI (@ANI) October 2, 2019

State Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat will contest from his current seat of Sangamner. 

Assembly elections in Maharashtra is scheduled to be held on October 21 and the counting of votes will be held on October 24. 

Meanwhile, the Congress-NCP fold also announced on Wednesday that Samajwadi Party (SP) will contest on three seats as part of the alliance.

"Samajwadi Party will be contesting from three seats - Aurangabad East, Shivaji Nagar and Bhiwandi East. They were asking for seven seats but later agreed to contest from three," Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik said at a press conference.

He said that other local parties also want seats in the alliance so we are having our discussions the matter.

Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said that discussions about the final candidate list are going on and a final call will soon be made.

"There are some pending matters related to the seat-sharing with our allies. We are discussing it with them and a final decision will be made very soon," Chavan said.

The leaders of the two parties announced that they will leave 38 seats for smaller allies. They said 7-8 parties have come together to fight the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in the state. 

(With ANI inputs)