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A total of 4,140 candidates were left in the fray for 288 Maharashtra assembly seats after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday, a poll official said.
Polls will be held on November 20, while results will be declared on November 23.
"We received 7,078 valid nomination forms for 288 seats. Of these, 2,938 candidates have withdrawn nominations, leaving 4,140 in the fray," the state chief electoral office official said.
The figure of 4,140 for the upcoming poll is a 28 per cent increase from the 3,239 candidates who fought the 2019 assembly polls, he added.
While Shahada seat in Nandurbar has just three candidates, the list is topped by Majalgaon in Beed with 34 candidates.
Mumbai's 36 seats will be fought by 420 candidates, while the figure is 303 for the 21 seats in Pune district, officials said.
The end of the process to withdraw nominations for Maharashtra assembly polls on Monday left the Congress in despair in Kolhapur North seat after its candidate Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati withdrew, while the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to convince Gopal Shetty to opt out from Mumbai's Borivali.
However, the headache for the Mahayuti continued as Dada Sarvankar, the Shiv Sena candidate from Mahim assembly constituency in Mumbai, braving the pressure from the party leadership, refused to pull out.
He is pitted against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray's son Amit Thackeray, who has the backing of the BJP, a constituent of the ruling Mahayuti along with the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party.
In Kolhapur, a visually upset Satej Patil expressed dismay at Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati pulling out of the race, which left the Congress without representation in one of its western Maharashtra strongholds.
"If there was no courage, (she) should not have contested the polls. I would have showed my power," said an agitated Patil.
The setback comes after the Congress changed its earlier candidate on the seat, ex-corporator Rajesh Latkar, and nominated her after a party office was vandalised by those opposed to the former.
The Congress is likely to support Latkar, who is contesting as an independent.
"I was not consulted before my candidature was changed by the party, due to which I had contested as an independent," Latkar said.
In Shrigonda assembly seati in Ahilyanagar, the BJP's official candidate, Pratibha Pachpute, wife of sitting MLA Babanrao Pachpute, withdrew her nomination and submitted the AB form on behalf of her son Vikramsinh Pachpute. Vikramsinh is vice president of the state BJP Yuva Morcha.
"We gave AB form to Vikramsinh Pachpute at the request of his mother. He will contest using the party symbol," a BJP leader said.
The BJP got a breather after former MP Shetty, who had won the Mumbai North Lok Sabha seat with margins of more than 4 lakh in 2014 and 2019 before being denied a seat in the 2024 edition, withdrew his nomination as an independent candidate from Borivali and announced he would support the party's official nominee Sanjay Upadhyay.
Shetty had rebelled, claiming the seat, among the safest for the BJP, was given to outside candidates for several years while local party workers were being ignored.
He had also flagged the need for more communication from the leadership with grassroots functionaries.
The BJP also managed to get rebel Nana Kate to withdraw from the Chinchwad seat in the Pune district, leaving the seat clear of intra-party hurdles for official candidate Shankar Jagtap, who is pitted against Rahul Kalate of Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar.
In the Shirdi seat in Ahilyanagar district, BJP candidate and state revenue minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil could not convince party colleague Rajendra Pipada to opt out. Pipada, who is openly critical of Vikhe Patil, did not relent even after a talk with Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
There were good tidings in Pune for Congress after Mukhtar Shaikh withdrew from the Kasba Peth assembly constituency and announced his support to the party's official candidate and sitting MLA, Ravindra Dhangekar.
As many as seven Congress rebels withdrew on Monday, party functionaries said. These include Hemalata Patil from Nashik Central, Madhu Chavan from Byculla and Vishwanath Walvi from Nandurbar.
Shiv Sena candidates Rajashri Aherrao from Deolali and Dhanraj Mahale from Dindori (District Nashik), who hit the headlines after their AB forms (essential poll documents from the party) were ferried on special aircraft, also withdrew their nominations.
The Shinde-led Sena fielded the two despite the seats being officially allotted to ally Ajit Pawar-led NCP as part of the Mahayuti's seat-sharing agreement.
Only two NCP(SP) rebels are in the fray after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended, functionaries of the Sharad Pawar-led party said.
The BJP is contesting on 148 seats, while it has given four seats to allies. Its Mahayuti ally NCP is contesting 52 seats. While Shinde-led Sena had released names of candidates for 80 seats, there was confusion about the number after withdrawal of nominations.
The Congress is contesting on 102 seats. The Sharad Pawar-led NCP-SP is contesting on 87, while it has given two seats to the CPI.
The exact number of candidates for Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray is not available.
Voting will take place in 288 seats of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in a single phase on November 20. The votes will be counted on November 23.