Malshiras MLA to take on Shinde’s daughter in Solapur

BJP announces candidates for 3 Maharashtra Lok Sabha seats, denies ticket to Solapur MP Swami, opts for MLA Satpute to battle Congress candidate Shinde.

Mumbai: The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared candidates for three Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra as part of its fifth list of candidates for the ensuing Lok Sabha polls. As was expected, Solapur MP Jai Siddheshwar Swami has been denied a ticket as the party has decided to field Malshiras MLA Ram Satpute from Solapur to take on the Congress candidate and Solapur city MLA Praniti Shinde, daughter of former union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

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According to the fifth list released on Sunday night, BJP will field its sitting MPs Sunil Mendhe and Ashok Nete from the Bhandara-Gondia and Gadchiroli-Chimur constituencies, respectively.

For Solapur, a seat reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates, the party held several rounds of discussions over the past week and decided against fielding Swami due to an ongoing court case over his caste certificate. Instead, it opted for Satpute, who cut his teeth in the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) before contesting from the Malshiras assembly seat in 2019 and winning by a mere 2,590 votes.

A war of words commenced between Satpute and Praniti Shinde as soon as the former was declared as a candidate. “As a daughter of Solapur, I welcome Satpute to contest from the Solapur Lok Sabha constituency. Let’s fight the battle of political ideology without spreading hatred in communities,” said Shinde, trying to paint Satpute as an outsider, as he hails from Beed district and represents the Malshiras assembly segment, which falls under the Madha Lok Sabha constituency.

Satpute responded, saying, “My parents worked for many sugar factories in Solapur and I am an MLA from Solapur district itself.”

Thus far, the BJP has declared 23 candidates from Maharashtra. Apart from Swami, it has denied tickets to four other sitting MPs including Mumbai North MP Gopal Shetty, Mumbai North East MP Manoj Kotak, Beed MP Pritam Munde and Jalgaon MP Unmesh Patil.