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This is an archive article published on April 9, 2024

It’s final: Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena to contest Sangli, Bhiwandi goes to Sharad Pawar’s NCP

The MVA has adopted the 21-17-10 formula. Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest 21 seats, Congress 17 and 10 by NCP (S-P).

MVA seat sharing pact, maharashtra lok sabha elections(L to R) Congress's Nana Patole, Shiv Sena Chief Uddhav Thackeray and NCP's Sharad Pawar at a press conference on April 9, 2024 (Express Photo by Sankhadeep Banerjee)

It’s official now. Chandrahar Patil, a wrestler who belongs to Shiv Sena (UBT), will be contesting the Sangli Lok Sabha seat as a Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate. He will take on sitting MP Sanjaykaka Patil of the BJP who has been renominated by the party.

The Congress has also given up the Bhiwandi seat which will be contested by NCP led by Sharad Pawar. The MVA has adopted 21-17-10 formula. Shiv Sena (UBT) will contest 21, Congress 17 and 10 by NCP (S-P).

After a bitter duel between Shiv Sena (UBT) and the Congress, Chandrahar Patil’s name was given the stamp by leaders of Maha Vikas Aghadi at a joint press conference in Mumbai.

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The Congress and Sena had been at loggerheads after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray went to Sangli and announced the candidature of Chandrahar Patil. The Congress had immediately opposed the decision, arguing that Sangli had been the party’s traditional bastion and it had two MLAs in the constituency, while the Sena had none. It announced the name of Vishal Patil, the gandson of former chief minister Vasantdada Patil.

The Sena, on the other hand, contended that it had parted with Kolhapur and Ramtek Lok Sabha seats and therefore wanted to gain at least the Sangli seat in return for the two.

The Congress leaders led by Sangli MLA Vishwajeet Kadam had approched the Congress high command and urged it to take it up with the Sena leadership. However, the Sena remained firm. As a peace deal, it promised to send Vishal Patil to Rajya Sabha. The Sena had also warned that if hurdles are created in Sangli seat, it’s repurcussions will be felt across Maharashtra.

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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