First phase of Maharashtra BJP core group meeting ends; focuses on key MLA seats

By Toshi Mandola
New Delhi [India], October 14 : The first phase of the Maharashtra BJP core group meeting concluded on Monday, and discussions took place on the seats of the sitting MLAs.
The meeting of the BJP Maharashtra core group that lasted for about 3 hours was held at the BJP headquarters. Seat sharing was discussed at the BJP headquarters under the leadership of National President Jagat Prakash Nadda.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, State President Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Chandrakant Patil, Raosaheb Danve, Muralidhar Mohol, Vinod Tawde, Ashish Shelar, Pankaja Munde, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Mangal Prabhat Lodha were present in the meeting.
At the same time, from the central leadership, Home Minister Amit Shah, Ashwini Vaishnav, Bhupendra Yadav, Piyush Goyal and Organization General Secretary B. L Santosh were also present.
According to sources, a discussion has been held on the seats of the sitting MLAs of Maharashtra in the meeting. BJP has 105 MLAs in Maharashtra. The second phase core group meeting will be held on October 16 at the BJP headquarters and in the evening the name will be finalized in the Maharashtra CEC meeting.
According to the sources, the discussion regarding seat sharing with all the alliance parties in the state of Maharashtra has been largely completed. And all the alliance parties seem satisfied with the seat sharing so far.
"Preliminary checks were done on the names of the candidates. The preparations of the BJP party in the state were reviewed. The first list of candidates will be approved in the presence of Modi in the Central Election Committee meeting to be held on October 16. Tomorrow, the Jharkhand Core Group meeting will be held at the BJP headquarters," the sources added.
According to sources, all sitting MLAs of BJP will not be re-nominated. The first list will include the names of sitting BJP ministers and senior MLAs but not all sitting MLAs will be re-nominated.
The sources said that the MLAs who have performed poorly, will not be made candidates. The road map to win the Maharashtra elections and the electoral issues there have also been discussed. Region wise road map will be discussed and elections will be fought on regional issues there.
While talking to the media, BJP state president Chandrashekhar Bawankule said that today there has been a discussion about the seats of our sitting MLAs. The names of the candidates will be announced after the CEC meeting on October 16. In Maharashtra, BJP, CM Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Ajit Pawar will fight the election together. As far as the seat is concerned, the party which can win the seat will contest the election. Wherever the sitting MLA is, he will contest from there. The party which can win the election from the remaining seats, its candidate will come from that seat and the rest of the party will support him.
The 288 seats Maharashtra Assembly will go to polls later this year. The Election Commission of India has yet to announce the poll dates.
The upcoming Maharashtra election will see a contest between the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, comprising the Shiv Sena (UBT), NCP (Sharad Pawar faction), and Congress, and the Maha Yuti Alliance, which includes the BJP, Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction).