Representative image of a person casting a vote.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: As many as 258 candidates are left in the fray in the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra going to polls in the third phase on May 7 and all eyes will be on Baramati, where two members of the powerful Sharad Pawar family are facing each other.
Monday (April 22) was the last date for withdrawal of nominations for the third phase of elections.
Baramati in Pune district has the highest number of candidates at 38 followed by Madha (32), Osmanabad (31), Latur (28), Hatkanangale (27), Kolhapur (23), Solapur (21), Sangli (20), Satara (16), Raigad (13) and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg (9), election officials said.
In Baramati, Nationalist Congress Party (SP) candidate Supriya Sule, the daughter of Sharad Pawar, is pitted against her sister-in-law and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar's wife Sunetra, the nominee of the ruling NCP.
Two royal scions are also in the fray from different seats -- Shahu Chhatrapati in Kolhapur as the Congress candidate and Udayanraje Bhosale in Satara as the BJP nominee. Union minister Narayan Rane is contesting on a BJP ticket from Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri.
Congress rebel Vishal Patil stuck to his decision to contest the Sangli Lok Sabha poll as an independent candidate after the seat was allotted to the party's ally Shiv Sena (UBT).