Ending the suspense over the candidature of the Madha Lok Sabha constituency in Solapur, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Friday announced the nomination of Solapur Zilla Parishad president Sanjay Shinde for it.
Speaking in Baramati, Mr. Pawar also announced the candidacy of Ranajagjitsinha Patil, son of NCP stalwart and former MP Padamsinha Patil, for the Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency.
Earlier, the NCP top brass announced that Mr. Pawar himself would be contesting from Madha until he withdrew earlier this month.
Mr. Shinde, an influential figure in Solapur’s politics, is the brother of Babanrao Shinde, the NCP legislator from the Madha Assembly constituency. He is also a supporter of NCP leader Ajit Pawar and an adversary of the Mohite-Patil clan.
Mr. Shinde had managed to win the Solapur Zilla Parishad with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As a result, the announcement of his candidature is considered a homecoming of sorts to the NCP. “He is not re-entering the NCP fold. He was already a member of our family. I have full confidence that [Mr. Shinde] and his associates will work for the welfare of Solapur and win the Madha Lok Sabha with more votes than I secured in 2009,” Mr. Pawar said. He further said that the NCP-Congress alliance would win the maximum seats in Maharashtra in the general election.
Mr. Pawar’s decision to field Mr. Shinde is seen as an attempt to weaken the hold of his fellow partyman, Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, the present MP of Madha, over Solapur. Mr. Shinde’s candidacy also satisfies Mr. Ajit, another adversary of the Mohite-Patil clan.
Thanking Mr. Pawar and Mr. Ajit for advocating his candidacy, Mr. Shinde said, “Those entrusted with the leadership of Solapur made some mistakes. This began in 2010-11 when the administration of local establishments, including sugar cooperatives, was being mishandled. As a result, constituents were drifting away from the NCP.”
Mr. Shinde also said that while he had complained about the local NCP leadership in the past, he never drifted away from the party’s ideology and he had remained loyal to Mr. Pawar and Mr. Ajit.
Meanwhile, the BJP may field Rohan Deshmukh, the son of BJP leader and State Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh, to take on Mr. Shinde in the coming election.
