The Bharatiya Janata Party fielded senior leader Gopinath Munde's daughter Pankaja Palave from Parli even as some partymen protested giving ticket to late Pramod Mahajan's daughter Poonam in the Maharashtra assembly elections.
Pankaja is among the 20 candidates announced by the BJP on Monday in its second list for the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections. Munde's elder brother's son-in-law Madhusudan Kendre has been fielded from Gangakhed, while former Congress leader Ranjit Deshmukh's son Aashish has been given ticket from Savner.
There has been voices of protest in the BJP from Ghatopkar West assembly seat after Poonam Mahajan was given a ticket. The BJP's alliance partner Shiv Sena too has faced protests from its cadres over ticket distribution. Supporters of a Shiv Sena MLA Sada Sarvankar protested outside the house of senior party leader Manohar Joshi over speculation that Sena was planning to field Milind Vaidya from Dadar instead of Sarvankar. Vaidya, a former Mayor of Mumbai, is a close associate of Joshi.
The BJP's Central Election Committee secretary Ananth Kumar said party chief Rajnath Singh has been authorised to announce candidates for the remaining 33 seats. So far the BJP has announced the names of 86 candidates.
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