Mumbai: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Maharashtra state president Chandrakant Patil on Sunday accused Shiv Sena’s young Lok Sabha MP from Kolhapur, Sanjay Mandalik, for wiping out the electoral existence of the party from Kolhapur district. Chandrakant Patil pinning the blame on Sanjay Mandlik has openly alleged that Mandalik had openly helped Bunty (Satej) Patil and helped getting his nephew Rituraj Patil elected to the legislative assembly.
Chandrakant Patil’s native work place is Kolhapur. He was twice elected to the Pune Division Graduate constituency in the Legislative Council. In the recent assembly elections, Patil has been elected from Brahmin community dominated constituency in Kothrud in Pune.
The state BJP president is from the Maratha community, and had for some time been criticized for choosing Kothrud, a safe constituency, instead of contesting from Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and other Maratha community dominated districts. However, the election results have shown that the BJPs selection of the assembly constituency was correct.
In Kolhapur district, the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance has met it’s Waterloo and the BJP’s existence has been erased in the district. While, the Shiv Sena has, had to fight for its survival by winning one of the five seats.
Analyzing the party’s defeat in Pune, Patil has blamed Sena MP Mandalik. The announcement ‘we have decided’ was coined during the May 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Kolhapur district Congress president Satej (Bunty) Patil paid back Dhananjay Mahadik, the then NCP MP, in the same coin in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, for the rigging in the 2014 Vidhan Sabha elections. After defeating Mahadik, Satej Patil openly rallied the Congress support behind the Sena and helped him to get elected. Mandalik repaid that gratitude by assisting Ritu Raj Patil and NCP’s Hassan Mushrif in getting elected.
Dada Patil cited the incident and alleged that the BJP was defeated only because of the Mandalik. He also advised Mandalik’s party (Shiv Sena) should think about it. He said that those who brought the toll, those who brought urban decay to Kolhapur and the people elected them and we despite having made Kolhapur toll free, we despite developing Kolhapur, it is hard to comprehend as to why people rejected us.
