Bureaucrat, who quit service, will contest polls on Sena (UBT) ticket

Siddharth Kharat, ex-joint secretary, joined Shiv Sena (UBT) and will likely contest from Mehkar in Buldhana, aiming to reclaim the traditional seat.

MUMBAI: Siddharth Kharat, who recently took voluntary retirement from service while posted as joint secretary in Mantralaya, on Tuesday joined Shiv Sena (UBT). He is likely to be the party’s candidate from Mehkar constituency in Buldhana district, a traditional Shiv Sena seat.

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Kharat is also from the district and has close relations with local leaders and activists of the dalit movement. As the Thackeray faction was firm on contesting the Mehkar seat, Kharat decided to join their party.

Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray welcomed Kharat to the party at his residence, Matoshree. Narendra Khedekar, district chief of Thackeray faction in Buldhana, and MP Arvind Sawant were also present on the occasion. Khedekar said that during his tenure in various departments, Kharat helped the people from Buldhana by using his position. During the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government, Kharat was the personal secretary to the then energy minister and Congress leader Nitin Raut.

Thackeray expressed confidence that the party will win the Mehkar seat in the assembly elections. “I hope all of you will accept the candidate given by me. If all party workers unitedly work for the party candidate, he will win for sure as the party has good strength in the district,” he said.

From 2009, Mehkar is a SC reserved assembly constituency. Sanjay Raimulkar from Shiv Sena won the seat in 2009. Raimulkar is a close aide of MP and now union minister of state, Pratap Jadhav. Raimulkar joined the Eknath Shinde faction after a split in the Sena. Hence, the Thackeray faction was in search of a candidate from this reserve seat. Now, Kharat will challenge Raimulkar in the coming assembly elections.

Meanwhile, two other leaders joined the Sena (UBT). Sainath Tare, Kalyan district chief of Shiv Sena led by Ekanth Shinde and Ganesh Naik from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) joined the Thackeray faction on Wednesday.