The BJP on Sunday announced the candidature of sitting MLC Ranjit Patil and Prashant Patil, a relative of Union Minister of State Subhash Bhamre, for the Maharashtra Legislative Council elections, due in December.
Minister of State Patil currently represents Amravati Graduates constituency, while Prashant Patil has been nominated from Nashik division Graduates constituency, a party statement said. A total of 11 seats from Teachers, Graduates and Local Authorities constituencies are up for grabs. Interestingly, the Election Commission is yet to announce the schedule for the election.
According to sources in the BJP, one of the reasons for declaring the candidatures so early is because of the vast nature of the constituencies that cover the Revenue division or the entire local authorities (civic bodies) in the constituency. “Another reason is that Ranjit Patil is expected to face a tough task in retaining his seat and also his berth in the state cabinet,” a party leader said.
Prashant Patil is the son-in-law of Mr. Bhamre’s brother. He lives in Nashik and is a business partner of Pradeep Pawar, who had contested the Nashik seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls as a Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate, but lost.
According to the source, what tipped the scales in favour of Prashant was that another of Mr. Bhamre’s relatives, a bureaucrat based in Gujarat, was learnt to have helped party president Amit Shah in the election campaign. Mr. Bhamre said the BJP gives priority to work and not relationships.
After the late Daulatrao Aher, who had once represented the Nashik Graduates constituency from 1995 to 1999, the BJP has struggled to find a suitable candidate to replace him. Prashant faces an uphill task of wresting the seat from sitting Congress MLC Sudhir Tambe. The 11 members from the Legislative Council who will be retiring on December 5 this year include five NCP leaders, and two each from the Congress and BJP, and two Independents.
Of the 11 constituencies, six are local authorities, three are teachers’ and two are graduates’ division constituencies. —PTI
Patil is expected to face a tough task in retaining his seat and his state cabinet berth, BJP sources said
