Maha polls: Parties grapple with rebels in Aurangabad

Several leaders from Aurangabad district in Maharashtra filed their nominations against official candidates on Friday for the Maharashtra Assembly polls slated for October 21. October 7 is the last date for withdrawing nominations.

Shiv Sena corporator Renukadas alias Raju Vaidya filed his nomination against BJP candidate and minister of state for industry Atul Save in Aurangabad East seat. In Phulambri, a Shiv Sena zilla parishad member filed his nomination against BJP candidate and Speaker in the outgoing Assembly Haribhau Bagade.

The Sena is contesting six out of the nine Assembly seats in the district, of which three, namely Aurangabad East, West and Central comprise urban areas. In Aurangabad Central, which was won by AIMIM in the 2014 polls, a former district president of the party, Javeed Qureshi, has filed his nomination.

In Aurangabad West, a seat reserved for the Scheduled Caste communities, official Sena candidate Sanjay Shirsath is up against rebel colleague and corporator Raju Shinde who is fighting as an Independent. In Vijapur, which has been given to the Sena as part of the seat-sharing deal with BJP, Dinesh Pardeshi, who switched sides from Congress to BJP recently, is contesting as a rebel against Sena's Ramesh Bornare.

Prashant Bam, sitting MLA from Gangapur, is pitted against Santosh Mane who joined the NCP a day ago from the Sena. Harshawardhan Jadhav, a Sena MLA who resigned from the Maharashtra Assembly during the Maratha quota stir last year, is fighting from Kannad as an Independent against Sena's Udaysingh Rajput.

Kishore Pawar, son-in-law of state water supply minister and BJP leader Babanrao Lonikar, has also filed his nomination and so has Sena rebel Rajendra Rathod from Kannad. Former Congressman Abdul Sattar is fighting on a Sena ticket from Sillod and is up against BJP rebels like Suresh Bankar and Sunil Mirkar.

The Congress has fielded Kaisar Azad from Sillod, where party rebel Prabahkar Palodkar too filed his nomination. PTI AW BNM BNM.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)