Sangitaben Patil registers third win in Gujarat’s Limbayat, kin in Maharashtra hope she becomes minister

“I am proud of my Maharashtrian roots,” Sangita told The Indian Express over phone from Surat. “Yesterday, in my celebratory rally I deliberately wore Maharashtrian clothes and jewellery,” she added.

Sangita won her first election in 2012. On Thursday, she defeated her closest rival, Aam Aadmi Party’s Pankajbhai Tayade by over 57,000 votes while Congress’s Gopal Patil stood a distant third.

Sangita hails from Sarve village in Pachora tehsil of Jalgaon district. Her father served as a policeman and had six children, four daughters and two sons. In 1995, Sangita married Rajendra Patil, whose family hailed from Maharashtra’s Dhule. Her in-laws stayed in Limbayat area of Surat, which is known to house migrants from Maharashtra’s Khandesh area.

“After marriage, while her husband was involved in a business pertaining to saris, Sangita found employment as an anchor with a local Marathi news channel,” Sandip Patil, husband of Sangita’s younger sister Yojana, said.

“Later, her enthusiasm for social service made her part of a women’s collective. She joined BJP sometime in the 2000s. In 2012, the party gave her a ticket to contest the Assembly election from the Limbayat constituency. She won the seat for the party with a margin of 30,000 votes. She repeated her victory in 2017 for a second time. Yesterday’s win is a hattrick for her,” Sandip said.

Her family members who stay in Jalgaon and Pune have expressed confidence that being a third-time MLA she might get an opportunity to work as a minister. “We are proud of our sister and are confident that if she gets an opportunity to work as a minister, she will do justice to that responsibility,” Sandip said.