Both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have largely ignored north Indian leaders in the distribution of tickets for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections. This is unlike the 2014 state Assembly polls in which the Congress fielded more than a dozen north Indian candidates and the BJP gave tickets to four -- Vidya Thakur, Mohit Kamboj, Amarjeet Singh and Sunil Yadav.

This time, the BJP has named just three north Indian candidates -- Ramesh Thakur from Malad West, Vidya Thakur from Goregaon, and Mangal Prabhat Lodha from Malabar Hill. And the Congress has given tickets to only five Hindi speaking candidates, Anand Shukla, editor of Yashobhumi newspaper from Ghatkopar West, Ajanta Yadav from Kandivali East, Govind Singh from Mulund, Aslam Shekih from Malad West and Naseem Khan from Chandiwali.