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This is an archive article published on April 22, 2024

Vishal Patil revolts, faces expulsion as Sangli gears up for three-cornered contest

Monday was the last day for withdrawing nominations for the election to be held on May 7.

Sangli Lok Sabha candidatesVishal is the grandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil. (Photo: X/ @patilvishalp)

Maharashtra’s Sangli Lok Sabha constituency is headed for a three-cornered contest as Vishal Patil, a Congress leader, has refused to withdraw his nomination despite being asked by his party to do so. Monday was the last day for withdrawing nominations for the election to be held on May 7.

“Vishal Patil did not withdraw his nomination papers today. He was asked to do so by the party, yet he has refused. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Nana Patole will soon announce appropriate action to be taken against him,” a Congress spokesperson told The Indian Express. “Vishal Patil might be expelled from the party,” he added.

Patil has filed his form as an independent candidate. Patil will now be locked in a three-cornered contest with sitting MP Sanjaykaka Patil, who has been renominated by the BJP, and Chandrahar Patil of the Shiv Sena (UBT), which is part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi, of which the Congress is a constituent.

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Speaking to reporters in Sangli, Patil said, “I received several calls from the Congress urging me to withdraw from the fray. I was offered various posts. I don’t want any post. My candidacy belongs to the people. The ordinary party worker in Sangli is behind me…Our strength will keep growing in the coming days.”

Patil said he has no personal agenda. “I am not a selfish person. My fight is for the Congress. We want a Congress MP in Sangli. There is no three-cornered contest in Sangli. There will be a direct fight between me and Sanjaykaka Patil,” he said.

Patil said he waited for the Congress AB form till the last minute. “The form never came my way. It hurt me badly. I was thinking that I would be the MVA’s official candidate,” he said.

The Congress rank and file led by MLA Vishwajeet Kadam had demanded that the party contest the polls from Sangli, which they argued had been a Congress bastion. The party has, however, lost it for two consecutive times during the Modi wave.

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Kadam had met party leaders in Delhi as well as in Mumbai and urged them to persuade the Sena (UBT) to give the seat to the Congress. However, nothing worked as the Sena (UBT) refused to part with the seat. In fact, Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray had demanded action against the Congress rebel.

The Sena UBT, however, has promised that it will ensure “justice” for Patil if he withdraws from the race. He is the grandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil.

The Congress has so far avoided campaigning for Chandrahar Patil, a popular wrestler in Sangli. He had offered to opt out of the race on the condition that the Congress should tell the people that the party did not want to let a farmer’s son contest the election.

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.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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