The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has fielded former IPS officer Suresh Khopade and farmers’ leader Raghunathdada Patil as its candidates against the ruling NCP’s sitting MP Supriya Sule and Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty from Baramati and Hathkanangale constituencies respectively.
The names of Khopade and Patil figured in the AAP’s fifth list of 17 candidates for the lok Sabha polls, released on Wednesday. Khopade was one of the officers who made effective use of “mohalla committees” to maintain harmony in the communally-sensitive powerloom town of Bhiwandi.
like Shetty, Patil was also once part of the Sharad Joshi-headed Shetkari Sanghatana which crusaded for the farmers’ cause in the eighties and nineties in Maharashtra and other parts of the country. Raghunathdada Patil, also an influential farmers’ leader, will be taking on Shetty, who has a very large following among farmers in western Maharashtra.
A sitting MP, Shetty had defeated the NCP’s Nitvedita Mane in Hathkanangale constituency in the 2009 lok Sabha polls. This time around, the NCP has forsaken the Hathkanangale seat to its senior ruling alliance partner, the Congress.
The Congress is planning to put up its former two-time MP Kalappa Awade as its candidate from Hathkanangale constituency.
The other candidates who figured in the AAP’s fifth list are: Jalaluddin Ansari (Bhiwandi), Sudhir Surve (Buldhana), Savita Shinde (Mhada), Rajendra Chorge (Satara), Naresh Thakur (Kalyan), Vikram Salve (Ulhasnagar), Salma Kulkarni (Parbhani), Nihal Ahmed (Dhule), Pratap Goswami ( Ramtek), Nitin Udmale ( Shirdi) and Satish Jain (Mumbai north).