Pune, Apr 1 (PTI) Former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan on Monday said the Satara Lok Sabha seat has gone to the NCP (SP) in the seat-sharing of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the allies will standby the candidate the party fields.
The MVA comprises the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).
Sitting NCP MP Srinivas Patil, who had defeated the BJP’s Rajya Sabha member Udayanraje Bhosale in the byelection in 2019, has declined to contest due to health issues.
“The picture of Satara LS constituency is clear. In the seat-sharing process, the seat has gone to the NCP (SP) and we all will rally behind the candidate it decides to field,” Chavan told a regional news channel.
Satara is the “karma bhumi” of Maharashtra’s first chief minister Yashwantrao Chavan and the ideologies of social reformers Mahatma Jyotirao Phule and Shahu Maharaj originated here, he said.
“There is no room for communal ideologies in Satara. No MP with communal ideology has been successful here in the past, and we will not let such elements be successful. It is now up to the NCP (SP) to field its candidate,” the Congress leader said.
Maharashtra NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil had on Sunday met Chavan at the latter’s residence in Karad in Satara.
Asked about speculations about his name being brought up for the Satara seat, Chavan said during his meeting with Patil, it was decided that the MVA constituents would ensure the victory of whoever the NCP (SP) fields.
Chavan represented Satara in Parliament in the 1990s but was defeated by Shrinivas Patil in 1999 after Sharad Pawar walked out of the Congress and formed the Nationalist Congress Party.
The NCP has since fielded candidates from Satara. PTI SPK ARU
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