Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kickstart the BJP’s campaign for the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Maharashtra with a public rally in Chandrapur on Monday evening.

“The people of Maharashtra have taken a solemn pledge for the grand victory of BJP-NDA candidates in the Lok Sabha elections. Today in Chandrapur, I will have an opportunity to seek the blessings of the people here at 5 p.m.,” PM Modi said in a post on X.

Known as the Mahayuti coalition, the BJP, the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and Ajit Pawar-led NCP are jointly contesting the polls.

So far, the BJP has announced contestants for 24 seats, while the Shiv Sena and the NCP have released lists of eight and three candidates, respectively.

In the Chandrapur constituency, state BJP minister Sudhir Mungantiwar is pitted against Congress candidate Pratibha Dhanorkar. In the 2019 polls, Chandrapur was the lone seat won by Congress candidate Suresh Dhanorkar, who died in May last year. The Congress has nominated his wife as the party candidate for the seat this time.

The Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra will be conducted in five phases on April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, and May 20. The state, with its 48 Lok Sabha seats, is the second-largest contributor to the lower house of Parliament after Uttar Pradesh.

Of the five constituencies going to polls in the first phase, the BJP is contesting in four — Nagpur, Chandrapur, Bhandara-Gondia, and Gadchiroli-Chimur — while the Shiv Sena is contesting from Ramtek.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of the 25 contested seats, while the undivided Shiv Sena secured 18 out of 23 seats, and the NCP won four out of the 19 seats it contested.

(With ANI input)