Ajit Pawar’s Candidates Have BJP’s Stamp of Approval

Mumbai: It appears that apart from selecting its own candidates, the BJP is also providing candidates to its alliance partner NCP for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly election. Ajit Pawar’s party on Friday inducted five leaders and gave them Assembly tickets. The new entrants included two former BJP MPs and a district president.

The other two were Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique and former minister Nawab Malik’s daughter Sana Malik.

Former BJP MP from Sangli, Sanjaykaka Patil and party’s Sangli district president Nishikant Bhosale Patil joined the NCP in the presence of NCP national president Ajit Pawar and state president Sunil Tatkare in Mumbai. As soon as they joined the party, NCP announced their candidature. Nishikant Patil will contest against NCP (SP)’s heavyweight Jayant Patil from Islampur and Sanjaykaka Patil will contest from Tasgaon assembly constituency, where he will be up against late R.R. Patil’s 25-year-old son Rohit Patil.

The NCP also gave tickets to former BJP MP Pratap Patil-Chikhalikar who lost the 2024 election from the Nanded Lok Sabha seat. Now he will contest the Assembly election from the Loha seat as NCP candidate.

Zeeshan Siddiqui, son of former state minister and NCP leader Baba Siddique, also joined the NCP. He will be the NCP candidate from Vandre East against Uddhav Thackeray’s relative Varun Sardesai. Zeshan had won the seat in 2019 as the Congress candidate. However, the Congress recently expelled him for the alleged anti-party activities.

After joining the NCP, Zeeshan Siddiqui said, “This is an emotional day for me and my family. NCP has expressed trust in me and I thank them for it. I will always be with the one who supported me in these difficult times.”

Sana Malik, the daughter of former minister Nawab Malik, will contest from her father’s constituency Anushaktinagar. This decision was also taken under the BJP’s pressure. The saffron party had strongly objected to Nawab Malik’s candidature as he is facing a case related to his alleged links with the Dawood Ibrahim gang.

Malik is expected to contest the Assembly election as an independent from the Muslim-dominated Mankhurd-Shivajinagar seat, where he will challenge Samajwadi Party’s state chief Abu Azmi.

Former BJP minister Rajkumar Badole joined the Ajit Pawar-led party earlier this week and is contesting the Assembly election as the NCP candidate from the Arjuni-Morgaon seat.

On Thursday, a crucial meeting was held in Delhi between Union home minister Amit Shah and leaders of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance to discuss the strategy for the Assembly elections.

Speaking about the meeting with Shah, Ajit Pawar said, “Our discussion is still. We are moving in a phased manner. Till we say something don’t get to the conclusion that someone has been given a ticket and another one is ignored. Yesterday our whole day was spent in Delhi for the discussion. Out of 288 seats, only 11 seats are remaining for us to decide. We are trying to take the best decision for the alliance.”

The Assembly elections in Maharashtra will be held on November 20 and results will be declared on November 23.