Maharashtra Election 2024: With only 10 days left for the Maharashtra assembly elections, the campaigning has gained momentum with all eyes on battles between families. The November 20 voting for the 288 assembly seats will see brothers, cousins and father-children in the fray, with members of the same family taking on each other in some seats.

The main challenge is for Ajit Pawar who rebelled against his uncle Sharad Pawar and led the split of the NCP. Now, Yugendra Pawar, the candidate of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP), will take on his uncle and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar in the Baramati seat. Since Baramati has been a stronghold of the Pawar family with Ajit winning the seat seven times, the battle has turned interesting.

From the Anushakti Nagar seat, senior Maharashtra leader and former minister Nawab Malik’s daughter is contesting on the NCP ticket while Nawab Malik himself is contesting on the party ticket from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar.

In the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly seat, another nephew of Ajit Pawar is in the fray as the NCP (SP) candidate. From this seat, Rohit Pawar is taking on BJP’s Ram Shinde. Rohit Pawar is the grand-nephew of Sharad Pawar.

In the Kannad constituency of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, independent candidate Harshwardhan Jadhav is running against his estranged wife, Sanjana Jadhav, who is the Shiv Sena candidate and the daughter of BJP leader and former Union minister Raosaheb Danve. Also, Sanjana Jadhav’s brother Santosh Danve is contesting from Bhokardan in Jalna as the BJP candidate. 

Congress candidates Amit Deshmukh and Dhiraj Deshmukh, sons of former state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, are in the poll race from Latur City and ajoining Latur Rural seats, respectively. 

Similarly, Nitesh Rane and Nilesh Rane, sons of BJP MP and former Maharashtra chief minister Narayan Rane, are in the fray from Kudal and Kankavli constituencies as Shiv Sena and BJP nominees, respectively.

While sitting Shiv Sena (UBT) sitting MLA Aaditya Thackeray is re-contesting from Worli, his maternal cousin Varun Sardesai is contesting from Vandre (Bandra) East assembly seat on the party’s ticket. Aaditya’s cousin Amit Thackeray, the son of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena head Raj Thackeray, is contesting from neighbouring Mahim seat in Mumbai.

Former Maharashtra minister Ganesh Naik is contesting from Airoli seat as a BJP candidate, while his son Sandeep is in the fray from the neighbouring Belapur constituency as NCP (SP) candidate.

Maharashtra minister Vijaykumar Gavit and his daughter and former MP Heena Gavit are also in the poll race. While senior Gavit is contesting as the BJP candidate from Nandurbar seat, his daughter is in the fray from neighbouring Akkalkuwa constituency as an independent.

NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal is contesting from Yevala, while his nephew and former MP Sameer Bhujbal is in the fray from the Nandgaon seat as an independent.

BJP’s Mumbai president Ashish Shelar is in the fray from Mumbai’s Vandre (Bandra) West, a constituency known to be the home of several Bollywood personalities, while his brother and party candidate Vinod Shelar is contesting from Malad West. (With agency inputs)