As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has announced its third list of candidates for State Assembly polls on Monday, now the battlines in Vidarbha has been drawn. In the third list of 25 candidates, 15 are from Vidarbha. Among the names are Pravin Datke from Nagpur Central, Sudhakar Kohale from Nagpur West, Kishor Jorgewar from Chandrapur, Ashish Deshmukh from Saoner and Charansingh Thakur from Katol. Sumit Wankhede, who has served as Personal Assistant to Devendra Fadnavis when he became Chief Minister, also figured in the third list. The party has fielded him from Arvi where Dadarao Keche is BJP MLA presently. Keche had defeated Amar Kale who defeated Ramdas Tadas in Wardha in recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Wankhede is second PA to Fadanvis who got ticket.

 

Earlier in 2019, Abhimanyu Pawar, who too had served as PA to Fadnavis, got elected from the Ausa constituency. Sumit Wankhede will have a direct fight with Mayura Amar Kale. The other candidates include Harish Pimple from Murtizapur (reserved for SC), Sai Prakash Dahake from Karanja, Rajesh Wankhede from Teosa, Umesh Yawalkar from Morshi, Sumit Wankhede from Arvi, Charansingh Thakur from Katol, Dr Ashish Deshmukh from Saoner, Pravin Prabhakarrao Datke from Nagpur Central, Sudhakar Kohle from Nagpur West, Dr Milind Mane from Nagpur North, Avinash Brahmankar from Sakoli, Kishor Jorgewar from Chandrapur (reserved for SC), Raju Todsam from Arni (reserved for ST), Kisan Wankhede from Umarkhed (reserved for SC). With this list, the BJP has now named a total of 146 candidates, a number closer to what BJP had claimed in Mahayuti. BJP had demanded 150 to 160 seats.

 

The list also includes four women candidates, including sitting MLA Bharti Lavekar from Versova seat in the western part of Mumbai, and Archana Shailesh Patil Chakurkar from Latur. The other two are Sneha Dube, who has been fielded from Vasai seat in Palghar district, and Sai Prakash Dahake from Karanja in Washim. Earlier, BJP had declared its candidates in Nagpur district from Nagpur South (Mohan Mate), Nagpur South West (Devendra Fadnavis), Nagpur East (Krishna Khopde), Kamptee (Chandrashekhar Bawankule), Hingna (Sameer Meghe). In Nagpur West and Nagpur Central, the party has changed the candidates. Sudhakar Kohle, who had respresented the party in Assembly from Nagpur South, has been pitted against Vikas Thakre of Congress. Pravin Datke, MLC, has been brought in place of three-time MLA Vikas Kumbhare. Datke has been working for Halba community since long. Recently with his pursuance, Government gave respite to thousands of supernumary employees of State due to the waiving off their one day’s technical gap. This technical gap had invalidated the Scheduled Tribe caste certificate. It helped a lot to Halba community. Dr Ashish Deshmukh has once again been fielded in Saoner.

 

In 2009, he had to face defeat by Sunil Kedar. This time, Congress has named Anuja Sunil Kedar as its candidate. Dr Deshmukh fought fiercely against Kedar and lost by a slender margin. This battle is considered as the tough one. Since Sunil Kedar can’t contest, he roped in his wife. Charansingh Thakur will once again fight the battle at Katol. This time his opponent will be Salil Anil Deshmukh. Raju Todsam, who had won on BJP ticket in 2014 from Arni, was removed from the party. Recently, the party has welcomed him into its fold in presence of Chandrashekhar Bawankule. Kishor Jorgewar who had won as an Independent candidate from Chandrapur in 2019 defeating Nana Shamkule. joined BJP on Sunday. His name figured in the list of Monday for Chandrapur.