Palus-Kadegaon bypolls: Vishwajeet Kadam elected unopposed after BJP opts out

Vishwajeet Kadam, Congress party candidate and youth Congress president, has been elected unopposed in the Palus-Kadegaon assembly bypolls, after Sangram Deshmukh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, withdrew his nomination on Monday.

The elections for Palus-Kadegaon bypolls were necessitated after the demise of Patangrao Kadam, senior Congress leader and Vishwajeet’s father.

Kadam said that he was happy with BJP’s decision to withdraw its candidate as a mark of respect. “The BJP respected people’s sentiments in the constituency and decided not to fight the elections. Eventually, the Election Commission declared me elected,” said Kadam.

The BJP decided to withdraw its candidate from the fray after senior leader and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil held a meeting with Deshmukh.

“BJP decided to withdraw its candidate to follow the tradition of not pitting candidates in seats where elections have been necessitated by demise of a sitting legislator,” said Patil.

Following the BJP’s decision, the Congress party congratulated Kadam for being elected unopposed. Last week, senior Congress party leader Harshawardhan Patil had urged BJP not to field a candidate, but BJP decided to contest elections after Congress fielded a candidate in the Palghar Lok Sabha bypolls, where elections were necessitated by the demise of Chintaman Vanga, BJP MP from Palghar.

Earlier, the Shiv Sena extended its support to Kadam after he spoke with Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena executive president, over the phone on the matter.