A day after the BJP and Shiv Sena announced a pre-poll pact, the parties nominated 195 candidates for the October 21 Assembly elections. While declaring 125 candidates, the BJP dropped 12 sitting MLAs and retained 52 law makers from the current House. Sena gave out 70 names, including most sitting MLAs. BJP's first list, which clearly has the chief minister's stamp, has 12 women nominees and some powerful turncoats, but has missed some prominent names. Minister of state Dilip Kamble has been dropped, but his brother is in the fray. Senior ministers Vinod Tawde and Chandrashekhar Bawankule have not made it to the first list. Neither has former minister Prakash Mehta and estranged leader Eknath Khadse. Mulund's veteran MLA Tara Singh has not been included due to age factor, but Speaker Haribhua Bagde, who is in the same age bracket, has been retained. State BJP president Chandrakant Patil replaced Kothrud's sitting MLA Medha Kulkarni. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his cabinet colleagues Pankaja Munde, Girish Mahajan, Jaikumar Rawal, Babanraao Lonikar and others have been posted in their existing segments. The next list is expected today.

Poll battle starts

The declaration clarified doubts regarding sharing of seats and made contests, mostly in Mumbai, clear because allies Congress and NCP have already declared several names from their respective ranks. Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, which plans to contest all 288 seats, would turn the fight into a multi-corner one. Rebellion within the ranks of all parties is expected in places where strong aspirants have been denied tickets. As reported by mid-day on October 1, the Sena got 124 seats and the BJP 146. If BJP's smaller allies were considered, then the party's quota would be 164 in the 288-seat Assembly. The smaller allies are expected to get 18 seats but BJP insiders said that they might not get that much. "If they (allies) are to get their promised share, then, they will be asked to fight on BJP's election symbol. Some allies have agreed to this," said a senior BJP leader. The sons and daughters of senior BJP leaders, who were first elected in 2014 and before, were given yet another opportunity. Some fathers whose wards were elected to Lok Sabha on BJP tickets – Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil (imported from Congress recently) and Dr Vijaykumar Gavit (imported from NCP in 2014) were fielded from their traditional strongholds.