BJP MLA’s wife Archana Patil joins NCP, gets Osmanabad ticket

Ajit Pawar-led NCP declares Archana Patil as candidate from Osmanabad LS constituency, denying former IAS officer Pravin Pardeshi BJP ticket.

Mumbai: The Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Thursday declared Archana Patil as its candidate from Osmanabad Lok Sabha constituency. The announcement was made after she joined the party in the presence of Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare among others.

Archana Patil joined NCP on Thursday. File Photo

Archana is the wife of Rana Jagjitsinh Patil, BJP MLA from Tuljapur assembly constituency that falls in Osmanabad. He was present at the event.

This development means that former IAS officer Pravin Pardeshi will not get the BJP ticket for Osmanabad that he had sought. The BJP negotiated hard for Pardeshi but Ajit Pawar put his foot down, insiders said. “Last week, Pardeshi met the deputy chief minister at his official residence in a last-ditch effort to convince him to leave the seat for him but Ajit Pawar did not agree,” said an NCP insider.

Archana Patil is the fifth candidate announced by the party for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Before her, the party announced candidates for three seats — Baramati, Raigad and Shirur. Parbhani had been allocated to the NCP but the BJP asked the NCP to give it to the Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP).

The NCP was mulling Dhananjay Sawant, nephew of health minister Tanaji Sawant, and party leader Suresh Birajdar, among others, for Osmanabad. Rana Jagjitsinh Patil’s family that has a significant hold in Osmanabad were opposing the candidates identified by the NCP. “They were initially not ready to accept the option suggested by the NCP which is to have Archana Patil contest from Osmanabad as their candidate. But, finally, they agreed to it,” said a party functionary.

Rana Jagjitsinh’s father, Padmasinh Patil was a close aide of NCP founder Sharad Pawar for a long time. He was also a minister in successive Congress-NCP governments in the state. However, he defected to the BJP in 2014.

For the sixth seat allocated to the NCP, it is still unclear if the party is getting Satara or Nashik. The party has been pushing for Satara but the BJP is bent on giving it to Udayanraje Bhosale, direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The NCP has decided to concede the seat to the BJP on condition that they will get Nashik in exchange, say NCP insiders.

The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena has a sitting MP Hemant Godse from Nashik and they were not ready to give it up. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is said to have convinced chief minister Eknath Shinde. Shinde was insistent on Godse as he had shifted his loyalty to him during the split in Shiv Sena but after several meetings Shinde has decided to give up his claim.

The NCP was initially seeking nine seats but the BJP was ready to give only four. After weeks of bargaining, the BJP agreed to give six.