LS polls: Sharad Pawar’s NCP (SP) fields Shashikant Shinde from Satara LS seat

Mumbai, Apr 10 (PTI) The NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) on Wednesday announced MLC Shashikant Shinde as its candidate for Satara Lok Sabha seat and Shriram Patil for Raver parliamentary constituency in Maharashtra.

Earlier, the name of senior Congress leader and former state chief minister Prithviraj Chavan was being discussed after sitting Satara MP Shrinivas Patil declined to seek a re-election due to health reasons.

Chavan had refused to contest on the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) symbol.

He had represented the seat, previously called Karad, but was defeated by Patil in 1999 after Pawar parted ways with the Congress and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Prithviraj Chavan’s parents Anandrao and Premla Chavan were also MPs from Karad seat, which ceased to exist after the 2009 delimitation as parts of it were merged with the Satara and Sangli parliamentary constituencies.

The NCP(SP) on Wednesday also announced Shriram Patil as its candidate from Raver, where he is pitted against BJP’s Raksha Khadse, who is seeking a third term.

The ruling alliance in Maharashtra, comprising the Shiv Sena-led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, BJP and Ajit Pawar-headed NCP, is yet to announce its candidate from Satara.

With the latest announcements, the opposition NCP (SP) has named candidates for nine out of 10 seats that it will contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

It is yet to announce candidate from Madha.

As part of the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi’s poll pact, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP) has got 10 Lok Sabha seats, the Congress 17 and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) 21 seats in Maharashtra.

The NCP (SP) has already announced the candidates for Baramati (Supriya Sule), Shirur (Amol Kolhe), Wardha (Amar Kale), Dindori (Bhaskar Bhagre), Ahmednagar (Nilesh Lanke), Beed (Bajrang Sonawane) and Bhiwandi (Suresh Mhatre) seats.

Polling for the 48 Lok Sabha seats in the state will be held in five phases from April 19 to May 20.