In Thane, the Ganesh Naik family which represented the segment in the past, wasn't willing to contest this time. In Kalyan, NCP has decided to field Babaji Patil
Supriya Sule
Supriya Sule and two other sitting members of Parliament in Western Maharashtra, have retained their nominations in the Nationalist Congress Party's (NCP) first list of Lok Sabha candidates announced on Thursday.
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Maval and Ahmednagar, which are in the news, because of the Pawar family's next generation Parth's campaign and Sujay Vikhe Patil's defection respectively, have not been given any official declaration yet. Parth is expected to feature in the forthcoming lists.
Parth's aunt Sule will fight from the family turf of Baramati in Pune where the Pawars are invincible. Another sure shot winner that the party will field is Udayanraje Bhonsale, the direct descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, from Satara. Kolhapur's sitting MP Dhananjay Mahadik will take yet another shot at the polls.
Mumbai's only NCP seat, North-East, has been given to former MP Sanjay Dina Patil. However, in Thane and Kalyan, the party has made changes. Anand Paranjpe who was shifted from Thane to Kalyan in 2009's delimitation of constituencies, will be back in Thane after getting defeated in the last elections. In Thane, the Ganesh Naik family which represented the segment in the past, wasn't willing to contest this time. In Kalyan, NCP has decided to field Babaji Patil.
There former ministers Sunil Tatkare (Raigad), Gulabrao Deokar (Jalgaon) and Rajendra Shingne (Buldhana) have also been cleared. Rajesh Vitekar will be Parbhani's candidate.
The party will support Raju Sherri's Swabhimani Paksh in Hatkanangale near Kolhapur.
NCP has two more seats — Madha and Bhandara-Gondia — where it has sitting MPs. Against NCP's four seats (and another won in bypolls), the Congress has only two MPs, in Nanded and Hingoli.
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