Pune: Sharad Pawar’s focus on western Maharashtra, aims to win 50 out of 67 seats for Maha Vikas Aghadi

Pune: The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) won 37 out of 67 seats in western Maharashtra in the State Legislative Assembly elections in 2019. The region was a traditional stronghold of the Congress-NCP combine due to the presence of cooperative sugar mills.

MVA leader and NCP (SP) President Sharad Pawar aims to win 50 seats this time in the region. Therefore, he has won over sugar barons such as Vijaysingh Mohite Patil from Akluj and Harshvardhan Patil from Indapur on his side again. They had crossed over to the BJP earlier.

Patil’s joining the NCP (SP) and leaving the ruling alliance Maha Yuti will be a big setback for Ajit Pawar. Earlier, Pawar welcomed Samarjitsinh Ghatge from Kolhapur in the NCP (SP). Harshvardhan Patil joined the NCP (SP) in a programme in Indapur on Monday (October 7), where Sharad Pawar declared that another big leader from Phaltan would join the NCP (SP) soon.

Patil is a former MLA from Indapur and was a minister in the Congress-NCP and the Shiv Sena-BJP governments. However, he was defeated in the previous two consecutive State Assembly elections in 2014 and 2019 by NCP’s Dattatraya Bharne.

Bharne is the sitting MLA and belongs to the NCP (AP). He is most likely to get the party ticket in the State polls. Therefore, Patil quit the BJP.

However, many leaders who left Sharad Pawar and joined the Ajit Pawar camp are now returning to the Sharad Pawar camp after the Lok Sabha election results. The MVA bounced back in the LS polls. Former NCP leader Madhukar Pichad left the party in 2014 and joined the BJP. He now wants to come back to the NCP (SP). His son Vaibhav Pichad was defeated by NCP candidate Kiran Lahamate in 2019. MLA Lahamate is in the Ajit Pawar camp. Therefore, Vaibhav Pichad is not likely to be fielded by the Maha Yuti. He may join the NCP (SP). The Pichad father-son duo met Sharad Pawar recently.

Another NCP (AP) leader Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar from Phaltan is likely to join the NCP (SP) soon. Baban Shinde from Madha is willing to join the Sharad Pawar faction. Before the Lok Sabha elections, Vijaysinh Mohite Patil joined the NCP (SP) and his nephew Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil won from the Madha Lok Sabha constituency. The MVA has won 8 out of 12 Lok Sabha seats in western Maharashtra. Therefore, Sharad Pawar is confident that the MVA would win 50 out of 67 assembly seats in the region.