After Fadnavis, Jankar meets Sharad Pawar, gets Malshiras ticket offer

Dhangar community leader Uttamrao Jankar met Sharad Pawar after meeting Devendra Fadnavis, sparking speculations. Jankar may contest from Malshiras.

Mumbai: Two days after meeting deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, Dhangar (shepeard ) community leader Uttamrao Jankar on Wednesday met NCP founder Sharad Pawar leading to speculations. Pawar is believed to have offered him candidature from Malshiras constituency to which Jankar appeared positive.

Uttam Jankar

The party’s Madha candidate Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil was also present at the meeting. Jankar will clear his stand on April 19, he, however, said that they want to support Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil in the Lok Sabha polls and indicated his desire to contest assembly elections from Malshiras.

His meeting with Pawar has raised eyebrows in political circles as on Monday Jankar flew down to Nagpur in a special flight to meet Fadnavis along with MLAs Jaykumar Gore (BJP), Shahajibapu Patil (Shiv Sena) and sitting BJP MP Ranjeetsinh Naik Nimbalkar, who has been renominated by the party to contest from Madha Lok Sabha constituency. The meeting was organised to persuade him as he was upset with the BJP for renominating Naik Nimbalkar from Madha. He had said that the meeting was positive.

His meeting with Pawar is a significant development considering the clout the Mohite-Patil family enjoys in the Solapur district and the 40-year-long rivalry between Mohite-Patil and Jankar. Malshiras assembly constituency also falls in the district and the support by Mohite Patil’s could turn the tables for Jankar, who has been offered the seat by Pawar senior in assembly polls scheduled later this year.

After meeting Pawar, Jankar indicated siding with him. “We have called a meeting of workers to decide on April 19. Our entire Malshiras taluka feels that Mohite-Patil should be elected as MP and someone from our group should become MLA. This enmity (between Jankar and Mohite-Patil) should come to an end for the development of the area,” he said.

Dhairyasheel Mohite-Patil also hinted at the same. “We expressed our stand before Pawar Saheb. He guided us on how we can be together and work to help each other,” he said.

With the changing political equation in Solapur district, both Mohite-Patil and Jankar can be beneficial for each other and thus are ready to leave their rivalry behind.

Jankar had fought assembly polls in 2019 on the NCP candidate after the BJP denied him a ticket from the Malshiras assembly constituency despite being in the party for a decade. He was defeated by BJP’s Ram Satpute, who is the party’s Solapur candidate in the ongoing Lok Sabha poll, by just 2,580 votes. This time he wanted to contest from Solapur LS seat on the BJP ticket, but the party chose Satpute over him after which Jankar had declared his support to Sharad Pawar in the Lok Sabha polls before he met with Fadnavis.

BJP is also attempting to woo him by assuring him candidature in assembly polls as he is considered to be a powerful leader from Malshiras and a popular leader among Dhangars.