All in the family: Parties give chance to kin of leaders in Maharashtra polls

From the ruling side, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Shiv Sena, Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party have declared the first list of candidates, while from the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) has come out with the first list so far.

Their lists show that a significant number of contenders are closely related to the current ministers, legislators or MPs, including their sons or daughters, wives and brothers or sisters. Sreejaya Chavan, the daughter of former chief minister and Congress turncoat Ashok Chavan who joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, is among the kin of a political heavyweight picked by the saffron party for the November 20 contest.

She will contest from the family's traditional constituency of Bhokar in Nanded district. Vinod Shelar, the brother of Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar, has been fielded by the party from the Malad West constituency, while Ashish himself has been re-nominated from the Bandra West seat in Mumbai.

The BJP has replaced its sitting MLA Babanrao Pachpute from the Shrigonda assembly constituency (in Ahilyanagar district) with his wife, Pratibha Pachpute, due to his health issues. The saffron party has dropped the name of Ganpat Gaikwad, its MLA from Kalyan East constituency in Thane district, and instead nominated his wife, Sulabha, to contest from the same constituency. Gaikwad is currently in jail for opening fire on a Shiv Sena worker inside a police station a few months ago.

Former Union minister and Lok Sabha member Narayan Rane's son, Nitesh, currently represents the Kankavli assembly segment. His elder brother, Nilesh, a former Lok Sabha member, has now joined the ruling Shiv Sena and is set to contest from the Kudal constituency, which falls under the family's home district of Sindhudurg.

In Chinchwad constituency in Pune district, the BJP replaced sitting MLA Ashwini Jagtap, the wife of late party leader Laxman Jagtap, but gave ticket to his brother Shankar Jagtap. This is his first election. Shinde-led Sena has nominated Kiran Samant, the brother of state minister Uday Samant, from the Rajapur seat in Ratnagiri district.

The family members of Shiv Sena leaders Sandipan Bhumare and Ravindra Waikar, who became members of the Lok Sabha after this year's general elections, have also been given a chance by the party from the respective constituencies that the two former MLAs represented.

While Bhumare's son Vilas will contest from the Paithan in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district, Waikar's wife Manisha will test electoral waters from the Jogeshwari East assembly seat. The ruling NCP already nominated Pankaj Bhujbal as the party MLC earlier this month. He is the son of senior party leader Chhagan Bhujbal, who is contesting from the Yeola assembly segment in Nashik district.

But since Bhujbal's nephew Sameer is keen on contesting the election, he will fight as an independent candidate against Sena's incumbent MLA Suhas Kande from Nandgaon constituency in Nashik. Uddhav Thackeray-led Sena (UBT) has renominated sitting MLA Aaditya Thackeray from the Worli seat in Mumbai, while his cousin Varun Sardesai will contest his maiden election from Bandra East.

The Sena (UBT) also decided to given ticket to sitting MLA Sunil Raut, brother of the party's Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Raut from Vikroli seat in Mumbai. Although the NCP (SP) has not announced its list of candidates so far, Rohit Patil, son of former home minister late R R Patil, filed his nomination as an NCP (SP) candidate from Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal constituency in Sangli district on Thursday.

According to party insiders, Rohit Pawar, the grandnephew of Sharad Pawar and sitting MLA from Karjat Jamkhed assembly seat in Ahilyanagar, is most likely to be renominated from the constituency. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, who never contested election, has fielded his son Amit from Mahim assembly seat in Mumbai. It will be his maiden election.

When asked about parties fielding relatives, political observer Abhay Deshpande said, "The established leaders want to retain their control over their constituency, and as a part of that, they develop their network and connections with the voters. In order to continue the hold, their traditional constituency becomes safer for that particular family and hence handed over to a son or daughter as political inheritance."

"But in some cases, a party chooses someone from the family of an established leader due to reasons like the death of the leader. For instance, Shiv Sena has fielded Suhas Babar from the Khanapur seat (in Sangli) because his MLA father Anil Babar passed away a few months back. One factor is seeking political gains from the sympathy that voters will have for the family. At the same time, it is also considered as token of gratitude from the political party to a particular family that has served it for a long time," he said.