Mumbai: It was an embarrassing moment for the Congress, when its Leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly was spotted holding meetings for his son, who is a Bharatiya Janata Party candidate in the 2019 general election, at a private bungalow in Rahuri on Tuesday.
After political differences with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar over the exchange of the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat and a ticket for his son, Dr Sujay Vikhe-Patil, his father and star Congress campaigner Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil has chosen not to campaign for Congress-NCP candidates across the state.
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Instead, he has been holding meetings of farmers and voters to campaign for his son, who is the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for the Ahmednagar LS constituency. The All India Congress Committee had named its star campaigners on March 27, in which Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil’s name was figured prominently.
However, his son joined the BJP on March 13, almost a fortnight before his father was entrusted with the responsibility of campaigning for the Congress-NCP candidates. While Vikhe-Patil did not respond to calls, his close aide said Vikhe-Patil did not conduct any poll rallies for either Congress or NCP candidates.
“He has not left Ahmednagar in the last three weeks. No campaign tour has been scheduled in the coming days either,” said the Congress leader. “Vikhe-Patil feels his presence on the campaign trail will not be acceptable to NCP workers and they might boycott his rallies.
Such a situation could be detrimental to the candidate, so he has chosen to stay away from the poll campaign,” the leader claimed, on behalf of Vikhe-Patil. However, Vikhe-Patil was spotted at a private bungalow in Rahuri, addressing a gathering of around 200 farmers. He was campaigning for his son.
In his speech, he criticised NCP chief Sharad Pawar and appealed the farmers to vote for his son Sujay, the BJP candidate. On the other hand, his brother, Dr Ashok Vikhe-Patil was present at a poll rally in Ahmednagar on Tuesday and was seen sharing the dais with Pawar.
