LS polls: NCP (SP) names 2 candidates for Beed & Bhiwandi

Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (SP) on Thursday announced candidates for the Beed and Bhiwandi (Thane district) Lok Sabha constituencies.

They are -- Bajrang M. Sonwane (Beed) and Suresh Mhatre, also known as Balyamama (Bhiwandi), both of the Maha Vikas Aghadi-INDIA bloc.

Sonwane, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls against the Bharatiya Janata Party's Pritam Munde in Beed, will now be pitted against the BJP Secretary Pankaja Munde, while Mhatre will lock horns with the BJP's Union Minister of State Kapil M. Patil in Bhiwandi.

Creating a piquant situation, the NCP (SP)'s second list of Lok Sabha poll nominees came even as the MVA ally Congress had staked a claim to the Bhiwandi seat and the negotiations were still underway among the three allies including Shiv Sena (UBT).

With this, the NCP (SP) has named 7 LS candidates so far, including its Working President Supriya Sule from Baramati (Pune district).

The others in the fray include Dr. Amol R. Kolhe (Shirur), Amar Kale (Wardha), Bhaskar Bhagre (Dindori) and Nilesh Lanke (Ahmednagar) – who recently quit the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party and was rewarded with a ticket by NCP (SP).