The Congress on Sunday released its first list of 51 candidates for the Maharashtra Assembly elections. Former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan has been fielded from Bhikar while state party chief Vijay Balasaheb Thorat will contest from Sangamner.

The list was finalised after the party’s Central Election Committee, headed by interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, met in New Delhi.

Some of the other well-known names in the list are former Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh’s son Amit Deshmukh, who is the party candidate from Latur City, and former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde. She will contest from the Solapur city central. Nitin Raut, who heads the party’s Scheduled Castes department, has been fielded from Nagpur North.

The elections will be held on October 21 and the results will be announced on October 24. The Congress will contest the elections with the Nationalist Congress Party but the parties have not finalised a seat-sharing arrangement. The two parties have also been hit by a number of defections to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena.