After keeping the suspense going till the last day for filing nomination papers, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday nominated former corporator Nana Kate for the Chinchwad Assembly seat in Maharashtra. BJP candidate Ashwini Jagtap, wife of deceased MLA Laxman Jagtap, had filed her nomination on Monday.
The announcement was made by state NCP chief Jayant Patil Tuesday morning.
“Nana Kate will be our candidate for Chinchwad seat,” NCP Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Ajit Gavahane told The Indian Express. The announcement came after Ajit Pawar had long deliberations with Kate and Shiv Sena leader Rahul Kalate, who was seeking an NCP nomination.
Kate represented Pimple Saudagar in the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. He and his wife were elected corporators from the Pimple Saudagar area in the 2017 civic elections. Kate has also served as president of the NCP’s local unit.
Tuesday is the last date for filing nominations and party leader Ajit Pawar, who held a closed-door meeting with other leaders at a hotel in the Ravet area of Pimpri-Chinchwad on Monday, had said he would announce his decision before 11 am.
Several aspirants, who had kept their nomination papers ready, were also present at the meeting. Rahul Kalate, who had contested the 2019 polls as a Sena rebel, was asked to wait at a place close to the hotel. However, Pawar did not announce his decision late Monday evening. Instead, he said he would announce his decision on Tuesday. “I will join you…for filing nomination,” he had said.
Kate told The Indian Express on Tuesday, “At the meeting, Ajitdada said as per a survey conducted by the party, some names have emerged. He had said that there are at least three top aspirants and he will pick one of those and announce his name”.
Kalate, who is also a former Sena corporator and gave a tough fight to Laxman Jagtap in the 2019 polls, said, “I was asked by NCP leaders to wait at a nearby place. I was told that I might get a call if picked but no call came my way.”
A Shiv Sena rebel candidate supported by NCP and Congress, Kalate had secured 1.12 lakh votes in the 2019 Assembly elections. In the 2019 elections, Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray was in alliance with BJP and the latter contested the seat.
The amount of votes that Kalate had secured then against Jagtap had made NCP consider fielding him. However, there was pressure on Ajit Pawar from NCP leaders to keep “outsiders” at bay. There were more than five top contenders for the seat from NCP and all of them opposed Kalate’s nomination, said Gavahane.
NCP leaders said that since the chief minister and deputy chief minister had appealed to Pawar to not field a candidate as per Maharashtra’s political tradition, he took his time to announce the name
“The delay in announcing the ticket is not just because of too many claimants but the leader will also give a thought to the appeal made by the CM and deputy CM. The final decision will come by 11 am,” said Gavahane.
After the meeting late Monday evening, however, Ajit Pawar had said that the Maha Vikas Aghadi has decided to contest both Kasba and Chinchwad seats.
