The Nationalist Congress Party has decided to field Suman Patil, wife of former Home Minister R.R. Patil who died of cancer last month, for the April 11 by-election to the Tasgaon-Kavathe Mahankal Assembly constituency. “R.R. Patil’s daughter is 23 years old, two years short of the eligible age to contest elections, and hence the party has decided to field his widow Suman Patil. An official decision will be announced next week,” a senior NCP leader told The Hindu .
NCP leader Ajit Pawar had appealed to all parties to allow the party’s candidate to get elected unopposed as a mark of respect towards R.R. Patil.
The BJP may not field a candidate against Ms. Patil to reciprocate the gesture by the NCP, which did not field a candidate against Gopinath Munde’s daughter Pritam Munde for the Lok Sabha by-election from Beed.
Munde was the Rural Development Minister in the first Narendra Modi Cabinet, and was killed in a car accident in June 2014 days after the government was sworn in. Pritam Munde got elected by the highest margin.
