For the Pune Lok Sabha seat, 14 candidates are in the fray while the number of candidates contesting the elections in Khed and Baramati Lok Sabha constituencies is five and four respectively.

A total of 64 aspirants of the Assembly polls and six others contesting the Lok Sabha elections pulled themselves out of the fray today. Among the prominent ones contesting the Lok Sabha polls from the district are Nationalist Congress Party leaders Sharad Pawar, Vitthal Tupe and Ashok Mohol; Pradeep Rawat and Pratibha Lokhande of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP); Kisan Bankhele of Shiv Sena; Mohan Joshi, Ramkrishna More and Ram Kandge of Congress and underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli who is fighting in the Khed constituency.

The major candidates in the elections for the State Assembly seats in the district are Minister of State for Agriculture Harshavardhan Patil who is an independent candidate from Indapur constituency, Sharad Pawar's nephew Ajit who is fighting in Baramati constituency and Gawli's wife Asha who has her eyes set on the Khed-Alandi seat.

A total of 214 aspirants had filed their nominations from the 18 assembly constituencies in the district while a total of 30 nominations were filed from Pune, Khed and Baramati Lok Sabha constituencies.

One nomination filed for the Khed Lok Sabha seat and 24 other nominations filed from the 18 Assembly constituencies were found invalid during the scrutiny. District Returning Officer Vijay Kumar Gautam released the final list of the candidates in the fray along with the election symbols after the deadline to withdraw the nominations was over this evening.

Earlier, former bureaucrat Avinash Dharmadhikari withdrew his nominations from both the Pune Lok sabha constituency and the Shivajinagar Assembly constituency. Congress Corporator Razzak Khan withdrew his nominations as independent candidate from the Pune Lok sabha and Bhavani Peth Assembly constituencies. Former MLA Prakash Dhere also withdrew his nomination as an independent candidate from Bhavani Peth Assembly constituency.

Among the other prominent aspirants who withdrew their nominations as independent candidates were Ramdas Marne from Shivajinagar Assembly constituency; Ravindra Malvadkar, Sayyed Afsar and Anis Sundke from Bhavani Peth Assembly constituency; former deputy mayor Hiraman Shinde and Pramod Jawale from Parvati Assembly constituency; Vilas Mate of Shiv Sena from Mulshi Assembly constituency; former Deputy Mayor Uddhav Wawre and Nandu Moze from Bopodi Assembly constituency as well as underworld don Arun Gawli's wife Asha and workers of his Akhil Bharatiya Sena (ABS) Rameshkumar Hinge and Shivaji Bhor from Ambegaon assembly. Congress rebel Ganapatrao Phulawade also withdrew his nominations as independent candidate from Junnar and Ambegaon constituencies.

Eighteen villages have been identified as sensitive places and extra precautions would be taken there to ensure free and fare elections, he added.

A total of 38 cognisable cases have been filed in connection with various crimes relating to the elections. As many as 64 cases pertaining to violation of the model code of conduct for the elections have been reported.

One of these 64 cases, in which the BJP workers were accused of treating animals with cruelty, has been referred to the Election Commission, he said.