Ahead of Assembly election, the National Congress Party (NCP) is planning to contest seven seats of 36 Assembly seats in Mumbai. The party is looking for candidates from Worli, Anushakti Nagar, Kurla, Vikhroli and Magathane Assembly constituencies, included in their quota in the seat-sharing agreement with the Congress. Both the parties have come to an agreement on sharing 125 seats each and leaving the rest 38 for the smaller allies.
According to Hindustan Times, NCP may field big names such as Mumbai president Nawab Malik, members of legislative council Vidya Chavan and Kiran Pawaskar, and former Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) group leader Dhananjay Pisal.
As Congress and NCP have mutually planned to contest the election together, remaining 29 seats will be contested by Congress in Mumbai. A senior NCP functionary told to Hindustan Times that NCP is also trying to get Dindoshi and Versova seats from Congress in exchange for Goregaon and Bhandup West. The reason for Congress to contest remaining seats is because of poor presence of NCP there.
According to Hindustan Times, the party is keeping an eye on NCP MLC Kiran Pawaskar and Suresh Mane in Worli. For Dindoshi, party MLC Vidya Chavan and Ajit Raorane are in the race. Mane was national general secretary of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). However, he was expelled in 2015 from the party. Raorane had contested the election in 2014 but could fetch only 8,550 votes. The functionary told to Hindustan Times that the party is considering Jyotsna Jadhav who is a doctor.
Although the party is keeping an eye on these candidates, there will be change in candidates if BJP and Shiv Sena plan to contest the election together. A former NCP minister told to Hindustan Times.
