With just two days remaining for filing nomination papers for the state assembly elections, the Maha-Yuti (MY) alliance is yet to finalise its candidate for the Mira Bhayandar (145) constituency. Amid the suspense, two aspirants including sitting legislator- Geeta Jain (independent) and former MLA- Narendra Mehta who are lobbying hard to bag the BJP ticket have further complicated the impasse as both have announced that they will file their nomination papers Monday.
29 October (Tuesday) is the last to file nominations when candidates can still attach the authority letter and party symbol to their already filed documents. Jain and Mehta have started broadcasting messages on social media platforms that they will file nominations at 10 and 12:30 pm respectively. Both their messages carry the BJP symbol and photos of MY alliance leaders including- chief minister-Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister’s- Devendra Fadnavis and Ajit Pawar. BJP has declared names of 121 candidates in two lists. Meanwhile, in a last ditch attempt to flaunt his strength Mehta organised a bike rally in the twin-city on Sunday.
Mehta had lost the 2019 assembly elections by a margin of 15,526 votes to Geeta Jain who fought as an independent after being denied a BJP ticket. Jain who went on to support the Maha-Yuti alliance.
While Mehta enjoys the support of more than 61 former corporators in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC), Jain has an edge as she is not only a sitting legislator but had also accompanied the Eknath Shinde rebel faction to Assam in 2022 which had led to the toppling of the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government.
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