After Ranjitsinh — son of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil — switched to the BJP, the NCP is playing its safe by not fielding his father, Vijaysinh, as its candidate from the Madha constituency in western Maharashtra. Instead, it has fielded a politically influential but a new face Sanjay Shinde as its candidate against Ranjitsinh from Madha constituency.
Currently, Shinde is the President of Solapur Zilla Parishad. He is a bitter political rival of Mohite-Patils in
Solapur district, where Madha tehsil falls.
Shinde had recently quit the NCP to contest against BJP candidate Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, as he had no hopes of getting nominated as a candidate by the Sharad Pawar-led party. Till recently, he was being wooed by the BJP into its
However, Shinde returned to the NCP after persuasion
by party chief Sharad Pawar himself.
Addressing a news conference after Shinde’s re-entry to the NCP, Pawaron Friday announced that Shinde would contest the Lok Sabha polls as a joint candidate of the NCP, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and Peasants and Workers’ Party.
Ranjitsinh had quit the NCP on March 19 and joined the BJP on the following day. The BJP nominated him as its candidate from Madha immediately afterwards.
It may be recalled that on March 11, NCP chief Sharad Pawar had backed out of the contest, setting the stage of the entry of his grandson Parth Pawar into electoral politics.
A month after he indicated that he would contest from Madha Lok Sabha constituency in western Maharashtra, Pawar, announced that he had decided not to contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Madha
constituency or any other constituency.
Pawar’s announcement had come after he met the party office bearers from Solapur in western Maharashtra — at which he urged his party workers to support the NCP’s sitting MP Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, who will re-contest the Lok Sabha polls from Madha constituency.
However, in the subsequent days, Ranjitsinh also began to lobby for the Madha seat. However, senior Mohite Patil—who is the close confidant of Pawar for very many years, appears to have had way.
Everyone was expecting the NCP to field Vijaysinh as its candidate from Mahada constituency. However, Pawar sprang a surprise on Friday and announced Shinde’s candidature in place of Vijaysinh, thus saving the latter of the trouble of fighting his son Ranjitsinh in the polls.