CHinchwad bypoll: Shankar Jagtap emerges as strong contender for Chinchwad after Fadnavis’s surprise visit
While BJP leaders have not stated his candidature on record, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's surprise visit at Shankar's residence last week has fuelled speculations.
Shankar Jagtap also met top BJP leaders at party headquarters in Mumbai two days back, leaders close to him said.
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WITH ONLY a few days to go before the BJP declares its candidate for Chinchwad assembly seat, which will go for bypoll on February 26, the name of Shankar Jagtap, the brother of deceased BJP MLA Laxman Jagtap, has emerged as a strong contender. The state leadership is likely to announce the final name on February 4 or 5.
While BJP leaders have not stated his candidature on record, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s surprise visit at Shankar’s residence last week has fuelled speculations. Shankar Jagtap also met top BJP leaders at party headquarters in Mumbai two days back, leaders close to him said.
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BJP Pimpri-Chinchwad president Mahesh Landge said he was not aware of the name of the candidate. “Our party leadership is expected to announce the name this week itself, either on Saturday or Sunday,” Landge said on Tuesday.
Asked whether a Jagtap family member will be the ultimate choice, Landge said, “Most probably…” When asked if it would be Shankar, Landge said, “I cannot comment on that…Our party’s parliamentary board will take the decision.” On Fadnavis’s visit, Shankar said, “The Deputy Chief Minister…said he wanted to meet the family and condole my brother’s death.” When asked whether Fadnavis enquired with him about elections, Shankar replied in the negative.
After the death of Laxman Jagtap, the names of his wife Ashwini and younger brother Shankar had been doing the rounds as probable candidates. It was speculated that there was even a dispute in the family in this regard but the local BJP leadership denied it. “There is no dispute in the Jagtap family,” said Landge.
Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.
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