BJP nominates Dhairyasheel Patil for RS polls, NCP likely to field Nitin Patil

Mumbai: BJP nominates former MLA Dhairyasheel Patil for Rajya Sabha seat. Patil, who joined BJP in February 2023, will serve till April 2026.

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party has nominated former MLA from Pen, Dhairyasheel Patil, for the Rajya Sabha seat going to the polls on September 3. Patil will get the term till April 2026. Two seats in the state were vacant after union minister Piyush Goyal and Udayanraje Bhosale were elected to the Lok Sabha in June.

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Patil, who joined the BJP in February 2023 was expected to be nominated for Raigad Lok Sabha constituency, but the seat went to Ajit Pawar-led NCP’s Sunil Tatkare, who defeated Shiv Sena-UBT’s Anant Geete. “Patil was upset and had threatened to quit if he was not given any respectable treatment in the party. He has been nominated to pacify him,” said a BJP leader.

Patil was elected from Pen in 2009 and 2014 as the Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) and was defeated by BJP’s Ravi Patil in 2019.

Meanwhile, Ajit Pawar-led NCP is likely to field Nitin Patil as its candidate for the RS bypoll as the party is getting one of the two vacant seats to contest. Patil is the brother of NCP MLA Makarand Patil from the Wai assembly constituency in the Satara district. He is also chairman of Satara District Cooperative Bank. He was expected to contest as an NCP candidate from the Satara Lok Sabha constituency, but the party had to leave the seat for the BJP.