It's Congress vs BJP fight in Kolhapur North bypoll after Shiv Sena leaves its claim

Amid BJP’s announcements of new dates for the collapse of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government, the Shiv Sena, which is heading the alliance government in Maharashtra, has yielded by leaving its claim over Kolhapur North assembly seat for the ally Congress party. Shiv Sena’s move has paved the way for a fight between Congress and BJP in the by-election to the Kolhapur North assembly constituency in western Maharashtra. Congress has fielded Chandrakant Jadhav’s wife Jayashree Jadhav while BJP has nominated Satyajit Kadam who is the nephew of former legislator and heavyweight Mahadeorao Mahadik. The bypoll is slated for April 12.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Chandrakant Jadhav who had won the 2019 assembly elections defeating the Shiv Sena’s sitting legislator Rajesh Kshirsagar.

Kshirsagar, who is currently the executive chairman of the Maharashtra State Planning Board, was quite keen to recontest and insisted that the Shiv Sena should not walk out of the race. However, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray prevailed and after the meeting decided to leave the Kolhapur North seat for the Congress party. Minister of state for home and Kolhapur district guardian minister Satej Patil played a key role in making a strong case for the Congress party by convincing the Chief Minister.

‘’Jadav will be now an MVA candidate and Kshirsagar will work for her victory. This will be politically prestigious by-election for MVA and therefore all three ruling partners will strive for Jadhav’s victory,’’ said Patil. ‘’We will approach the voters with the MVA government’s works in the last two and half years along with Congress legislator Chandrakant Jadhav’s slew of initiatives for the development of the constituency. Our aim is to stop BJP from winning the seat and that will be the major poll agenda,’’ he added.

For MVA the by-election is crucial as the NCP had lost to BJP in a bypoll held in May 2021 following the death of NCP’s sitting legislator Bharat Bhalke from Pandharpur-Mangalvedha assembly. Further, Congress retained the Deglur-Biloli seat after its nominee Jitesh Antapurkar won defeating the BJP candidate. The election was needed following the death of Congress legislator Raosaheb Antapurkar.

Published on: Saturday, March 19, 2022, 08:20 PM IST