NCP names 6 candidates for LS polls, announcement soon

NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) finalises six candidates for Lok Sabha polls in Maharashtra, including Supriya Sule and new faces, amid split fallout.

Mumbai: NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) has finalised the names of six candidates likely to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in the state, though a formal announcement to this effect is expected in a day or two. The list includes three sitting members of Parliament as well as Parner legislator Nilesh Lanke who recently returned to the Sharad Pawar camp after siding with the Ajit Pawar faction during the split in the party in July last year.

While Sharad Pawar has made allegations of intimidation towards his workers to switch sides earlier, this was the first time he spoke sternly. (HT FILE PHOTO)

Among the six candidates, NCP (SP) has decided to field Shrinivas Patil from Satara, Amol Kolhe from Shirur, and Sharad Pawar’s daughter Supriya Sule from home turf Baramati. Lanke, who will contest Lok Sabha elections for the first time, will be fielded from Ahmednagar, although it is feared that he may be disqualified as he had extended support to the Ajit Pawar faction by signing an affidavit during the split last year. He wants the party to consider his wife as a candidate instead.

The NCP (SP) leadership is also in contact with Congress leader Amar Kale for the Wardha Lok Sabha constituency. Kale, a two-term MLA from Arvi assembly constituency under Wardha district, is likely to resign from the Congress and contest the election on an NCP ticket.

Mahadev Jankar, chief of the Rashtriya Samaj Paksh, is another key contender with significant clout among the Dhangars. Though he is likely to be fielded from Madha, he has been insisting on contesting the polls under the RSP symbol, which the MVA has reservations about, said insiders.

NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar indicated the same, saying, “I want to give the seat to Jankar but the decision will be taken only after discussing it with other allies.”

The NCP (SP) is facing its toughest electoral battle till date owing to the split engineered by Ajit Pawar last year. Among the ten seats the party is likely to contest, half are in western Maharashtra, a stronghold of the NCP for decades. The other four seats that the party is likely to get are Beed, Dindori, Raver and Bhiwandi.