While the ruling Mahayuti is yet to break the deadlock over key seats like Nashik and Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg, troubles increased for the Opposition Congress and the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition after Vishal Patil, grandson of late Congress CM Vasantdada Patil, filed his nomination as an independent candidate for the Sangli Lok Sabha seat on Monday.
A major bone of contention among the MVA partners, several within the Maharashtra Congress are intensely resentful that Sangli, a Congress bastion for more than half a century since 1962, was ceded to Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT).
Mr. Patil has been poised for rebellion since the past few days as that the yielding of Sangli seat to Mr. Thackeray has proved demoralising for the party cadre given that Sangli still has a large body of the Patil family’s followers and that the Sena (UBT) has minimal presence there.
A three-time Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Vasantdada Patil was one of the tallest political leaders that western Maharashtra — and the State — produced, and one who dominated the cooperative sector scene in western Maharashtra for several decades from his base in Sangli.
After his death in 1989, the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency was held for 25 consecutive years by the house of Mr. Patil, with both Vishal’s father Prakashbapu Patil, and brother Pratik Patil representing the seat.
The Sena (UBT) has fielded neophyte Chandrahar Patil, a wrestler for the Sangli seat.
In another jolt to the Congress, senior partyman and former Deputy Mayor of Pune Aba Bagul, reportedly upset with the party’s nomination of MLA Ravindra Dhangekar for the Pune Lok Sabha seat, met with BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and BJP State president Chandrashekhar Bawankule in Nagpur today.
The meeting sparked talk about Mr. Bagul, who spoke out against the Congress sidelining loyalists and giving tickets to ‘outsiders’, going over to the BJP’s side.
Meanwhile, the spat over the Nashik Lok Sabha seat between the ruling Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Deputy CM Ajit Pawar and the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde intensified.
Senior NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction leader Praful Patel said the Shinde camp ought to give up its claims on the Nashik seat. The seat is currently held by Hemant Godse of the Mr. Shinde-led Sena.
Mr. Pawar’s NCP faction has been gunning for a ticket to be given to its senior leader Chhagan Bhujbal, a Cabinet Minister and MLA from Yeola in Nashik.
Responding to Mr. Patel, Shinde Sena camp spokesperson Sanjay Shirsat said his party “was adamant” that the seat remained with it and that there was no questioning of abandoning the Sena’s claims on Nashik.
The candidature of another seat is vexing the Mahayuti, which have yet to formally announced a candidate for the Satara Lok Sabha seat in western Maharashtra.
While Maratha royal Udayanraje Bhosale, currently with the BJP, has long been hankering for a ticket (and is said to be the most likely candidate), the Mahayuti have yet to formally announce his candidature.
Both Satara and Sangli go to polls in the third phase on May 7.
