Mumbai: A day after BJP named three candidates for the March 27 bypoll for five MLC seats, NCP and Sena on Monday picked a nominee each for the remaining seats. While NCP president Ajit Pawar nominated his trusted aide Sanjay Khodke, Sena chief Eknath Shinde chose Chandrakant Raghuwanshi from Dhule-Nandurbar.
Khodke had played a crucial role in engineering the NCP split in 2023. “He had been the master strategist. It was Sharad Pawar’s biggest political setback when most of the legislators deserted him,” said a senior NCP leader. Khodke had worked with Chhagan Bhujbal, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil and former deputy CM R R Patil as officer on special duty. His wife, Sulbha Khodke, is NCP’s Amravati MLA, who quit Congress right before the 2024 state polls and joined Ajit Pawar.
In the Sena, former councillor Sheetal Mhatre, former MLA Ravindra Dhangekar and party secretary Sanjay More had been in the race, while NCP had over 100 aspirants, including former MLA Zeeshan Siddique. —Prafulla Marpakwar