Samajwadi Party has revealed the identities of its five nominees for the Maharashtra Assembly polls. Akhilesh Yadav recently requested 12 seats from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), who also specified these five seats. SP’s Maharashtra branch leader Abu Asim Azmi updated NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar on Sunday about the strategy formulated by SP to secure victory in these five seats. He is expected to participate in a crucial MVA meeting on Monday concerning the allocation of seats.
Samajwadi Party has nominated its candidates in Dhule city, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, Bhiwandi East, Bhiwandi West, and Malegaon Central. Samajwadi Party has asserted ownership of 12 seats, pointing to different rationales, even though in the past it only ran in four of them in 2019, coming out victorious in two, contested one in 2014 and succeeded, and participated in six in 2009 and won three.
Both Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar and Bhiwandi East seats are considered important by the party because they are currently held by their existing MLAs. Abu Azmi, a three-time MLA from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, was defeated by SP’s Raees Sheikh in the 2019 Bhiwandi East election by a slim margin of 1,314 votes, beating the combined forces of Shiv Sena and Congress.
Nevertheless, the Samajwadi Party came in second place in Bhiwandi East during the 2014 election, following Azmi’s victory in 2009 as the party’s representative. Despite not running for the Bhiwandi West seat in 2019 and 2014, the SP has been requesting the seat after securing it in 2009.
The party is also interested in winning Malegaon Central and Dhule City, where the current MLAs are from AIMIM and are mostly Muslim-dominated. The party believes it wields greater sway over Muslims in these constituencies compared to AIMIM and is confident it can secure victories in these constituencies with the backing of Congress, NCP (SP), and Shiv Sena (UBT).