The Congress will announce the third list of 16 candidates for the Maharashtra polls

The Congress on Saturday released its third list of candidates for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections, with former Maharashtra Congress president Manikrao Thakare from Digras constituency.

The third list was formed after a meeting of the Central Election Committee (CEC), chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

With this announcement, Congress has nominated candidates for 87 constituencies in Maharashtra. The first list contained 48 candidates, while the second and third lists contained 23 and 16 candidates respectively.

The Maharashtra Congress had announced the second list of candidates earlier in the day, retaining sitting MLA Kailash Gorantyal from Jalna and party leader Sunil Kedar’s wife Anuja from Saoner seat.

The list came after the party’s Central Election Committee (CEC) met and discussed the names of candidates for the elections. Rahul Gandhi is reportedly angry due to “favouritism” evidenced by the shortlisting of candidates by the screening committee.

This comes a day later the first list, containing 48 candidates, was announced by the big old party. Senior Congress leaders Prithviraj Chavan and Nana Patole were named in the first list. The Congress fielded former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan from Karad South, while former Minister Nitin Raut was fielded again from Nagpur North.

Maharashtra will go to polls in a single phase on November 20, while the results will be declared on November 23.

During the Lok Sabha elections, Congress won 13 of the 17 seats allotted to it in Maharashtra. The party wants to continue its success streak in the upcoming parliamentary elections.