Mumbai: Amit Thackeray, son of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj Thackeray will contest the Maharashtra Assembly polls on an MNS ticket from the Mahim seat in central Mumbai, the party announced on Tuesday.
The MNS released a list of 45 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly polls. The party has fielded Gajanan Kale from the Belapur constituency in Navi Mumbai while Pramod alias Raju Patil will contest the polls from the Kalyan Rural constituency.
Avinash Jadhav has been fielded from the Thane seat, while Sandeep Deshpande will be the party's candidate from the Worli seat in south Mumbai. Jadhav will take on sitting BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar, who has been fielded by the saffron party.
The party has fielded Kishor Shinde from Kothrud constituency in Pune and he will now take on Maharashtra Minister and BJP leader Chandrakant Patil. In the Khadaswala constituency, the party has fielded Mayuresh Wanjle, son of late Ramesh Wanjle, who was an MNS MLA. Sainath Babar has been fielded from the Hadaspsar seat in the Pune district.
The party has also announced candidates for Ashti seat in Beed district, Karjat Jamkhed seat in Ahmednagar district, Solapur South, and Solapur City North seats in Solapur district. It has also announced candidates for the Kagal seat in the Kolhapur district, the Nagpur South seat in the Nagpur district of the state.
Sources said that Raj Thackeray is seeking support from Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis for his son Amit. It may be noted that Raj Thackeray had given unconditional support to the Mahayuti, comprising BJP, Shiv Sena and Nationalist Congress Party, during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"Therefore, MNS workers are currently expecting that at least the Mahayuti should support Amit Thackeray," sources said, adding that Raj discussed the issue with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Fadnavis at a five-star hotel here on Monday.
It is also understood that Raj Thackeray also sought support for MNS candidates from Shivdi and Worli Assembly Constituencies.
Meanwhile, in the 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections, Amit Thackeray's cousin and son of Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray Aaditya Thackeray won the polls from the Worli assembly constituency in Mumbai. At that time MNS supported Aaditya Thackeray.
Voting will be held for all 288 seats in Maharashtra on November 20 and counting will take place on November 23.
