Cong rebel Vishal Patil stands tall, sends sitting MP packing in Sangli

“Vishal Patil led from the first round itself. Only in the sixth round did his lead come down. It goes to show how popular he is. Unfortunately, he did not get the nomination,” said Congress MLA Vishwajeet Kadam.

In the end, Vishal bagged 5,69,651 votes while Sanjaykaka Patil had to remain content with 4,69,392 votes.

Kadam had been at the forefront of the campaign to nominate Vishal Patil, grandson of former CM Vasantdada Patil, from Sangli. However, Sena (UBT), an alliance partner of Congress in MVA, had refused to budge.

Sena fielded Chandrahar Patil, a wrestler, who stayed at third spot from the start, while BJP candidate Sanjaykaka Patil, the sitting MP, lagged behind at the second spot. Chandrahar Patil was backed to the hilt by Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray who himself had gone all the way to Sangli to announce his name.

Kadam made several trips to Delhi to meet Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. MPCC chief Nana Patole also expressed support to nominate Vishal Patil. “We fought hard to get the seat for Congress, but to no avail despite our best efforts to convince our alliance partner. In the end, we have been proved right,” said Kadam. The Congress central leadership had also apparently called up Uddhav Thackeray, but he too refused to listen, Congress sources said.

Sena had contended that it had sacrificed the Kolhapur seat and a couple of other seats to the Congress, and so Sena should be allowed to contest from Sangli. “The Sena has very little presence in Sangli while Congress has been winning this seat consistently. It has been the party’s traditional bastion. We had lost the seat only due to the Modi wave, and when it subsided we were confident that our candidate, especially, someone from Vasantdada Patil’s family should be fielded,” Kadam said. Vishal Patil is likely to join hands with Maha Vikas Aghadi.

During campaigning, Vishwajeet Kadam had kept himself away, and joined only towards the end. Most Congress workers and leaders backed Vishal Patil, while Chandrahar Patil struggled to keep the campaign momentum going.

Reacting to the Sangli seat result so far, Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, “Congress leaders and workers at the local level ditched our candidate, but the top Congress leaders were in consonance with us. The local leader did not support the MVA candidate. Anyway, we are hopeful that Vishal Patil will remain with MVA.”