Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Deshmukh To Fight Shinde’s New Candidate In Yavatmal-Washim (image-facebook/Sanjay Uttamrao Deshmukh)Ever since the BJP forced Eknath Shinde to drop their party’s five-term MP Bhavana Gawli from the farmer-dominated constituency, Yavatmal-Washim, the battle has heated up in the constituency. Meanwhile, Sanjay Uttamrao Deshmukh is fielded as the Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate.
The constituency belongs to one among the seven declared so far where there is a straight fight between the two Shiv Sena factions. Sanjay Mukh was a member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from the Digras constituency in 1999 and 2004. He has served as the Director of the Yavatmal District Central Cooperative Bank.
Born in 1968, Sanjay hails from a traditional Triole Kunbi family in Chincholi. In 1996, he became the district president of Shiv Sena from Yavatmal District. He joined politics at the early age of 30.
Sanjay also known as Sanjay Bhau has served as the Minister of Sports from 2002 to 2004. Apart from political positions, he is the founder of charitable trust like Sanjay Bhau Mitra Mandal, Ishwar Pratishthan, Ishwar Deshmukh foundation. These trust organize workshop of self-employment creation workshops, women safety workshops and provide education and training to poor and backward class children and women.
In the 1999 general election, he won the election from the Digras constituency by securing 26,415 votes by contesting as an independent candidate.
The seat, in the Vidarbha region, covers the twin districts of Yavatmal and Washim and is witnessing a direct contest between Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Rajashri Patil and Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Deshmukh. However, the BJP’s decision to change the candidate would be only known after the election. A senior woman MP of Shiv Sena was dropped by the Eknath Shinde’s faction and instead, the ticket was given to Rajashi Patil.
Earlier, the rural agrarian belt’s DMK votes (Deshmukh-Maratha-Kunbi) and Banjara votes in the region helped the undivided Shiv Sena-BJP saffron alliance win the seat, however, in the changing dynamics, one has to see how things will unfold.