Sr Pawar likely to contest LS polls from Madha

A week after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) finalised 11 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, including five sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), Sharad Pawar, the party chief, on Friday in his usual style has backtracked on his previous stand of not contesting any elections in the future. He told media, some leaders and the sitting MP from the Madha, in Solapur district had requested him to contest from Madha. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil is the sitting MP of NCP, who according to sources will take rest for a term or if he is interested in contesting, will be given another seat. Pawar is a Rajya Sabha member and his term will end on April 2, 2020. An NCP insider claimed, political environment is positive for all opposition parties to come together against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and they should grab the opportunity to dethrone Modi government.

“In such a situation, senior Pawar wants to contest from LS instead of being a member of RS. That is why, he may contest the LS polls,” he said. Pawar, while speaking with party leaders in Pune on Friday, said, “Mohite-Patil has

asked me to consider contesting from Madha. However, I have not yet decided. Let me think over this proposal.”

Apart from Mohite-Patil, Prabhakar Deshmukh a retired bureaucrat is another strong claimant, who wants to contest from Madha. Deshmukh retired from the post of Kokan divisional commissioner last year. Pawar had represented Madha LS seat during the year 2009-2014. After which he had announced

he would not contest LS polls in future. He was elected unopposed as RS member on February 1, 2014. Pawar, meanwhile, took a review of the Kolhapur and Jalgaon LS seats at Baramati hostel in Pune on Friday. Former minister, Gulabrao Deokar and Anil Bhaidas Patil’s name was discussed for the Jalgaon seat. However, Deokar informed Pawar, he preferred to contest for assembly polls instead of the LS polls.