NCP (SP) fields Shashikant Shinde from Satara, Shriram Patil in Raver

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has named Shashikant Shinde, MLC as its candidate for the Satara Lok Sabha constituency and Shriram Patil for the Raver seat, here on Wednesday.

This rests all speculation on the nomination of senior Congressman and ex-chief minister Prithviraj Chavan who was in the reckoning for Satara but had declined to contest on the NCP (SP)’s ‘Trumpeter’ symbol.

The sitting Satara MP Shriniwas Patil had bowed out of the race owing to health reasons last month.

Patil will lock horns with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting MP Raksha Khadse who is attempting a hattrick here.

With the latest announcements, the NCP (SP) – which is contesting 10 seats as a Maha Vikas Aghadi constituent – has nominated 9 candidates and is likely to name a contender for the Madha seat shortly.

The other NCP (SP) candidates include the party’s Working President Supriya Sule (Baramati), Dr. Amol Kolhe (Shirur), Nilesh Lanke (Ahmednagar), Suresh Mhatre (Bhiwandi), Amar Kale (Wardha), Bajrang Sonwane (Beed), and Bhaskar Bhagare (Dindori).

On Tuesday, the MVA finalised its seat-sharing pact for the 48 LS seats in the state in which Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest 21, Congress 17 and NCP (SP) 10.