Veteran Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader and incumbent Satara MP Shriniwas Patil will not contest the Lok Sabha election, said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday.
The key Satara seat in the ‘sugar belt’ region of western Maharashtra was one of the four seats won by the undivided NCP in the 2019 general election. The state has 48 Lok Sabha seats.
The 83-year-old Mr. Patil, an ex-IAS officer-turned-politician, is a former Governor of Sikkim and a close friend and associate of Mr. Pawar. He is reportedly withdrawing from the poll fray owing to health reasons.
Mr. Patil had defeated Maratha royal and BJP leader Udayanraje Bhosale, who prior to 2019 had been in the NCP, in the Satara Lok Sabha by-election that soon followed the 2019 polls.
Mr. Bhosale, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, won the 2019 election from Satara on an NCP ticket but later switched over to the BJP, necessitating the by-poll.
Mr. Pawar, who was in Satara today, said he would announce a candidate for the Satara seat in the next two days. “The names of Shashikant Shinde, Balasaheb Patil and Sunil Mane from our party are being considered,” he said.
Responding to a question on whether former Maharashtra Chief Minister and Congressman Prithviraj Chavan would be a candidate for the constituency, Mr. Pawar said Satara was an NCP seat and would remain with the party. Mr. Pawar further said he still felt that the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi ought to be a part of the MVA in the upcoming polls.
On the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the NCP (SP) chief said the global media has taken note of it. “While it is not good that outsiders are criticising our government, such a situation was created by the government itself,” he said.
The Enforcement Directorate on March 21 arrested Mr. Kejriwal in the alleged Delhi excise policy-linked scam. He has been remanded in ED’s custody till April 1.
