The Lok Sabha elections 2024 in Maharashtra will be held in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13 and May 20, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Saturday.

The counting of votes will be held on June 4, the ECI said.

Maharashtra has 48 Lok Sabha seats and of the 48 Lok Sabha seats in state, the electoral battle in Baramati will be the most keenly watched one in the upcoming elections.

Following are the key Lok Sabha seats to watch out for in Maharashtra–

– Mumbai South: Since 2014, Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena (UBT) has represented this seat, which includes some of the country`s most prominent business families and officials. Sawant beat Congressman Milind Deora in 2014 and 2019. Deora is now a Rajya Sabha member of the Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde and is expected to face a challenge from BJP assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar, who won the Colaba assembly seat in south Mumbai in 2019, according to the PTI.

– Mumbai North: The BJP has picked Union Minister Piyush Goyal as its candidate for the Mumbai North constituency, which is regarded as one of the party`s safest seats. In his three-decade political career, Goyal has never run for Lok Sabha or state assembly elections. Many of the important measures highlighted as triumphs of Narendra Modi`s 10-year government came through Goyal`s portfolios.

– Baramati constituency: Over the previous five decades, the Baramati constituency in western Maharashtra has consistently supported NCP founder Sharad Pawar and his family. The situation has altered dramatically after nephew Ajit Pawar rebelled against him and joined the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state as deputy chief minister. Supriya Sule, the current three-term MP and Sharad Pawar`s daughter, is up against Ajit Pawar`s wife Sunetra, making for an exciting high-stakes race inside the famed political family.

– Nagpur: Nitin Gadkari, a BJP veteran and Union minister, has been elected twice from this constituency, which also houses the RSS headquarters. It is also home to Devendra Fadnavis, the state`s Deputy Chief Minister. It was previously a Congress stronghold, but Gadkari won by more than two lakh votes in the last two elections.

– Bhandara-Gondia: This eastern Maharashtra constituency is significant because its former MP and current NCP working president, Praful Patel, is considered to have played a vital part in Ajit Pawar`s rebellion against Sharad Pawar. Since 1989, the BJP has won the seat four times, but each time with a new candidate. Sunil Mendhe of the Saffron Party is the current Member of Parliament.

– Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg: The coastal constituency will be closely watched if the BJP fields Union minister Narayan Rane. His son Nilesh represented it earlier before losing in 2014 and 2019 to Shiv Sena`s Vinayak Raut who is now with Shiv Sena (UBT). The constituency has witnessed agitations against a proposed mega refinery and an under-construction nuclear power plant. The Rane family apparently got upset when the BJP gave the charge of the coastal region to minister Ravindra Chavan, according to the PTI.

– Kalyan: Another constituency in the Mumbai region, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde`s son Shrikant Shinde won from here in 2014 and 2019 on the ticket of the undivided Shiv Sena. Of its six assembly segments, three are with the BJP, one with the Shiv Sena, and one each with the MNS and NCP- Sharadchandra Pawar. Simmering tensions between the BJP and Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena came to surface recently when a BJP MLA opened fire on a local Sena leader inside a police station in Ulhasnagar, as per the PTI.

– Nanded: The central Maharashtra constituency has been a stronghold of Congress, and the family of former chief minister Ashok Chavan, who won the seat in 2014, but lost to the BJP`s Prataprao Patil Chikhalikar in 2019 with the VBA-AIMIM candidate eating into the Congress` votes. Chavan is now in the BJP and a Rajya Sabha member, but if his party loses, it will also be a blow to his prestige in his new political home, the news agency reported.

– Beed: Formerly a bastion of BJP veteran Gopinath Munde, who died in an accident in 2014, this central Maharashtra constituency elected his younger daughter Pritam Munde in the subsequent byelection and again in 2019. In 2019, her elder sister Pankaja Munde lost her assembly seat to her estranged cousin and NCP leader, Dhananjay Munde. Dhananjay, a member of the Ajit Pawar-led NCP, is presently a state minister. Pankaja has replaced Pritam as the BJP`s Lok Sabha candidate in Beed, following concerns of anti-incumbency feeling, as per the PTI.

Raver: Raksha Khadse, the sitting MP of this north Maharashtra seat, is with the BJP, while her father-in-law Eknath Khadse is with the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) after his exit from the saffron party. Raksha won in 2014 while contesting for the first time, and increased her victory margin in 2019.

(with PTI inputs)

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