Praful Patel all set to come back to Lok Sabha

He is presently a Rajya Sabha member and wants to prove his mettle again from the newly carved Bhandara-Gondia constituency

After having tasted two successive defeats in 1999 from Chimur and 2004 from Bhandara, senior NCP leader and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Praful Patel is all set to stage a come back to Lok Sabha from his hometown.

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He is presently a Rajya Sabha member and wants to prove his mettle again from the newly carved Bhandara-Gondia constituency.

Indeed after losing previous election to BJP nominee and one time his associate, Shishupal Patle, Patel vowed to avenge the defeat and started his preparations right from the result.

Being a ‘high flying´ minister, Patel had developed good contacts with industrial houses and succeeded in bringing a thermal power plant of a private group at Tiroda here.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to lay the stone for power plant on February 10 but noted social worker of international repute Baba Amte passed away the same day.

But the work in power plant has picked up which is expected to provide employment opportunities to the local and help in industrialisation of backward Bhandara-Gondia area.

As a Civil Aviation Ministry, Patel is credited to have brought a flying academy to Gondia which has ultimately put Gondia on the civil aviation map.