Maharashtra polls: 4,140 candidates in fray for 288 assembly seats; 901 more than 2019 edition
Live MintMumbai: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. The end of the process to withdraw nominations for Maharashtra assembly polls on Monday left the Congress in despair in the Kolhapur North seat after its candidate Madhurima Raje Chhatrapati withdrew, while the BJP managed to convince Gopal Shetty to opt-out from Mumbai's Borivali. 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. 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.