Congress pushing to convince Vishal Patil, key ally backs off

The Congress is trying hard to convince party leader Vishal Patil who has filed his nomination as independent candidate for Sangli to withdraw his candidature

Mumbai: The Congress is trying hard to convince party leader Vishal Patil who has filed his nomination as independant candidate for Sangli Lok Sabha seat to withdraw his candidature. The party has indicated that strong action will be taken against him if he chose to remain adamant on his stand. Congress leader and former minister Vishwajeet Kadam, a local MLA who has been supporting Patil so far, has said that Patil should step back in the larger interests of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA). Monday is the last day for withdrawing nominations and people close to Patil say that until Sunday he has given no indications he will back off.

Congress leader Vishal Patil who has filed his nomination as an independent candidate in Sangli (UDAY DEOLEKAR)

So far, Patil was confident of having support from the local Congress unit and Vishwajeet Kadam but things have started changing. Kadam, former minister and Congress MLA from Palus-Kadegaon constituency, says: “I have been personally trying my best to ensure that Vishal Patil follows alliance dharma (ethics). We have also given him a proposal (for rehabilitation) and I hope he will take the right decision,” Kadam told Hindustan Times.

Explaining his support to Patil, the former minister said that his role was to get the Congress party the ticket as Sangli is its traditional seat but, unfortunately, this didn’t happen. Palus-Kadegaon is one of the six assembly constituencies that fall under the Sangli Lok Sabha constituency.

The Congress leadership has promised an MLC seat to Patil, who is the grandson of former chief minister and Congress heavyweight Vasantdada Patil but the former seems uninterested in it. Former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, who heads the disciplinary committee of the Congress, said: “Our attempts are on to convince him and it will continue till the last minute,” he emphasized .

A senior Congress leader said: “We have come to know that two former MLAs and seven to eight BJP corporators are pretending to support him as they want to divide non-BJP votes. We are hoping that he will not fall for it. Contesting Lok Sabha polls as an independent candidate is not an easy task. It is altogether a different ballgame compared to assembly elections.”

While Patil remained unavailable for comment, people close to him said that it would be difficult for him to withdraw as he and the sitting BJP MP are rivals and the people would not like him giving up. “Shiv Sena (UBT)’s organization is not strong in the district and withdrawing at this juncture will be a boon for the BJP MP,” said one of Patil’s close aides.

In 2019, Vishal Patil contested the election as a candidate of Swabhimani Paksha led by farmers’ leader Raju Shetti supported by both the Congress and the then unified NCP. He lost the poll by 1.64 lakh votes as Gopichand Padalkar who was contesting on a Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) ticket secured over three lakh votes. “VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar has extended his support to Vishal Patil this time,” said a close aide of Patil who said Patil would win if he contested.