Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress finalises 12 candidates in Maharashtra; meeting with Thackeray, Pawar today

After the Congress Central Election Committee met on Wednesday to finalise candidates for the Lok Sabha elections 2024 Maharashtra unit party President Nana Patole said that candidates have been finalised for 12 seats reported news agency ANIHe also mentioned that Congress will hold a meeting with Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar today to finalise the remaining seats for Lok Sabha elections 2024Nana Patole said We have discussed at least 1819 seats of Maharashtra we have finalised at least 12 seats and tomorrow morning we have a meeting with Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray Final discussions will be held and all seats will be announced by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow reported ANIThe meeting of the CEC was attended by former Congress president Sonia Gandhi Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and other members of the panel Rahul Gandhi who is also a member of the panel was not present during the meetingOn the announcement of the Maharashtra candidates list for Lok Sabha elections party leader Ramesh Chennithala said We are going to announce some seats and later we will announce other seats also Maha Vikas Aghadi is intact and we are all going together reported ANIThe panel headed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has been deliberating on the candidates list for Maharashtra Gujarat and RajasthanOn the announcement of candidates for Lok Sabha elections 2024 Congress MP KC Venugopal said Anytime it can be expected reported ANIThe Congress has so far announced 82 candidates in two lists for the sevenphase Lok Sabha elections 2024 beginning on April 19Amid the swiftly changing allegiances among political leaders in Maharashtra Bajrang Sonawane previously aligned with Ajit Pawars faction within the NCP made a significant move by joining Sharad Pawars Nationalist Congress Party NCP The event took place in Pune with Sharad Pawar and State President Jayant Patil presentSonawane hailing from Beed district Maharashtra was regarded as a staunch supporter of Ajit Pawar and Dhananjay Munde following the split in the NCP last year Notably he accompanied Ajit Pawar when the latter joined the Eknath Shindeled Grand Alliance government while serving as the NCP president for Beed district reported ANIIn the past Sonawane contested against Pritam Munde in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for the Beed seat putting up a formidable challengeDuring the Pune event at the NCP SP headquarters Sonawane expressed his decision to join Sharad Pawars camp without harbouring any expectations He stated his readiness to undertake any responsibility entrusted to him by Pawar reported ANISonawane pledged his full support to the NCPs candidate from Beed highlighting his enduring loyalty to the party He emphasized that his decision to switch sides was influenced by the sentiments of numerous party workers who felt discontented elsewhere reported ANIAddressing the gathering Sharad Pawar acknowledged Sonawanes return and his past electoral performance Pawar indicated that the partys senior leadership would deliberate on fielding Sonawane in the upcoming elections He thanked the party workers for their support and assured them that a decision regarding the Beed constituency candidate would be made after careful consideration by senior leaders reported ANIPawar emphasised the importance of not hastily making political decisions based solely on localised issues and stressed the need for thoughtful deliberation before finalising candidate selectionsWith inputs from ANI