The Aam Aadmi Party announced on Saturday that it will not contest the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections but instead support the Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition.
“In the Maharashtra elections, the party’s National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal will campaign for the MVA candidates,” said the party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh.
The Maha Vikas Aghadi comprises the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) and the Congress. The three parties are also constituents of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level, along with the Aam Aadmi Party.
Kejriwal is also expected to campaign for the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha ahead of Assembly polls in Jharkhand.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is also part of the INDIA bloc.
Polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. Voting in the Jharkhand polls will be conducted in two phases on November 13 and November 20. The counting of votes for both states will take place on November 23.
Ajit Pawar-led NCP release more names
Meanwhile, the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Sunday released its third list of four candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, bringing the total number of nominations to 49, reported The Hindu.
The party nominated Vijaysinh Pandit to contest from the Georai seat, Kashinath Date from the Parner seat, Sachin Patil from Phaltan and Dilip Bankar from the Niphad seat.
On Saturday, the Bharatiya Janata Party also released its second list of 22 candidates.
Among those nominated are Ram Bhadane for Dhule Rural, Chainsukh Madanlal Sancheti for Malkapur, Vijay Kamalkishor Agrawal for Akola West and Shyam Ramcharanji Khode for Washim.
Earlier the party had released a list of 99 candidates, including Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who will be contesting from Nagpur West
The BJP and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party along with the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena are part of the ruling Mahayuti alliance.
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