Lok Sabha Polls: It's BJP Vs Congress rebel in Maharashtra's Sangli constituency
Sangli Lok Sabha constituency, a Congress bastion until BJP wrested it 10 years ago, has gathered more attention due to a friction between alliance partners Shiv Sena (UBT) and Congress than the electoral battle.
UBT unilaterally decided to field Chandrahar Patil for the seat without even discussing it with Congress, and an upset Vishal Patil, grandson of former Maharashtra chief minister Vasant Dada Patil, is contesting the poll as an independent.
BJP leaders hope that this infighting in the Opposition camp, along with the Modi factor, will help its sitting MP Sanjay Kaka Patil eke out a win in spite of a strong anti-incumbency sentiment over lack of development and infrastructure in the region. Congress held its sway in Sangli for more than five decades, winning the seat from 1962 to 2009, until BJP's Sanjay Patil won it in 2014.
Why UBT leadership decided to contest in this seat despite the local Congress leadership's strong claim is a mystery that senior Congress leaders said they are unable to decipher. UBT Sena does not have a single MLA in the constituency that includes six assembly seats; it does not even have much of a presence in the local body of Sangli. In fact, UBT did not even have a candidate for the seat — it gave the seat to a political greenhorn, former wrestler Chandrahar Patil, the same day he joined the party in March.
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