Maharashtra polls: Congress releases 2nd list of 23 candidates

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, it has now announced 71 candidates.

The party has fielded Anuja, the wife of party leader Sunil Kedar, who has been disqualified from contesting elections for six years after being convicted in the Nagpur District Central Cooperative Bank (NDCCB) scam.

She will battle it out from the Saoner seat in Nagpur district. The opposition party has retained MLA Kailash Gorantyal from Jalna. The party had retained 25 incumbent MLAs in its first list of nominees.

Senior party leader and former deputy speaker Vasant Purke, who lost the 2019 polls, has been fielded again from Ralegaon (Yavatmal), while Shivajirao Moghe, who lost in 2019, has made way for his son Jitendra from the Arni seat (Yavatmal).

In Mumbai, the party has announced the candidature of Kalu Badheliya from Kandivali East seat, Ganesh Yadav from Sion Koliwada and Yashwant Singh from Charkop.

Suresh Bhoyar will take on state BJP chief Chandrashekar Bawankule at Kamptee (Nagpur), while in Wardha, the party has fielded Shekhar Shende, son of former assembly speaker late Pramod Shende.

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.