Maharashtra Elections: EC declares 798 nominations out of 5543 invalid

Ahead of Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has declared that 798 out of the total 5543 nominations are invalid. On the other hand, a total of 4745 candidates have received a nod from the election watchdog to contest polls. After the deadline for the candidates to withdraw their nomination ends on October 7, the final list of the candidates and the symbol allotted to them will be issued. Voting will take place in Maharashtra on October 21 and the counting of votes is scheduled on October 24.  

Lowest number of nominations from Mahim and Sewri 

A total of, 5,534 candidates had filed their nominations across Maharashtra for the election. The highest number of nominations were filed from the Bhokar Assembly seat in the Nanded district. Whereas, the least number of nominations were received in Mumbai's Mahim and Sewri constituencies. Only four candidates have filed nominations for each of these two constituencies. Fadnavis, the first BJP Chief Minister of the state, filed his papers from Nagpur South-West. He was accompanied by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Maharashtra Minister and state BJP chief Chandrakant Patil as he filed the nomination. 

Read: Aaditya Thackeray to contest from Worli in the Maharashtra elections

Devendra Fadnavis confident 

The current Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis is facing Congress's Ashish Deshmukh from the seat in Nagpur South-West. He expressed confidence that the Mahayuti (mega alliance) of the BJP, Shiv Sena, RPI(A) and others will register an "unprecedented victory". "I will register a record victory. We will win all the 12 seats in Nagpur. Our alliance will register an unprecedented victory in Vidarbha and Maharashtra," he said. 

Read: Shiv Sena's Aaditya Thackeray will contest 2019 Maharashtra elections

Aaditya Thackeray to contest from Worli 

Shiv Sena leader Aaditya Thackeray is all set to contest the 2019 Maharashtra Assembly Polls from the Worli constituency in Mumbai. With his nomination, he is now the first member of the Thackeray family to contest elections. If he wins the elections he will also be the first member to directly represent the people. The current president of Shiv Sena's youth wing, Aaditya Thackeray, has been playing an active role in politics over the last few years. Aaditya has also been on a Jan Ashirwad Yatra since July and completed the fourth phase of the yatra on September 18.

Read: Uddhav Thackeray's Shiv Sena ropes in Prashant Kishor to strategise for Maharashtra assembly elections, Aaditya Thackeray to be pitched as 'new hope'

Read: BIG: Prashant Kishor to meet Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool MLAs, will chalk out the strategy for 2021 assembly elections

(With Agency Inputs)