As many as 36 candidates including 18 independents have filed their nominations for the Thane (25) Lok Sabha constituency that will vote in the fifth phase on May 20. 26 candidates filed their nominations on the last day (3, May). These contestants have submitted a total of 43 nominations (some of them have filed more than one set of papers), said an official from the state electoral office.
These nominations will now be scrutinised and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is May 6. A total of 105 nomination forms have been dispensed by the electoral office between April 26 to May 3. While the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has fielded sitting MP- Rajan Vichare (UBT), the BJP-led Maha-Yuti (MY) has given its candidature to Naresh Mhaske of the Shiv Sena.
The Thane Lok Sabha constituency which includes assembly segments including- Mira-Bhayandar, Kopri-Pachpakhadi, Ovala-Majiwada, Thane, Airoli and Belapur is represented by legislators-Geeta Jain (Ind), Eknath Shinde (Shiv Sena), Pratap Sarnaik (Shiv Sena), Sanjay Kelkar (BJP), Ganesh Naik (BJP) and Manda Mhatre (BJP) respectively. In the Lok Sabha polls held in 2019, Vichare had trounced the NCP candidate-Anand Paranjpe by a margin of 4,12,145 votes. While Vichare managed to get 7,40,969 votes (63.30 percent), Paranjpe garnered 3,28,824 votes (28.09 percent) even as the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (BVA) candidate-Mallikarjun Poojary remained a distant third with 47,432 votes (4.05 percent).
VBA has fielded Dr. Ramrao Tukaram Kendre
This time the VBA has fielded Dr. Ramrao Tukaram Kendre as its candidate. The turnout of this constituency was limited to 11,70,970 votes (49.39 percent) in the 2019 LS polls, prompting the district electoral office to initiate various measures and conduct activities aimed at enhancing voting percentage under the Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP)- a flagship program of the Election Commission of India (ECI) for voter education, spreading voter awareness and promoting voter literacy in the country.
