In Dhule Rural constituency, two-time Congress MLA Kunal Rohidas Patil is fielded against the BJP’s Ram Bhadane Patil.
Patil is the son of late Congress leader Rohidas Patil, who represented Dhule Rural Assembly seat for a long time. Rohidas served as a Cabinet minister multiple times, under chief ministers Shankarrao Chavan, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sharad Pawar.
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In the 2019 assembly elections, Kunal Patil won the seat, garnering 1,25,575 votes. He defeated BJP candidate Gyanjyoti Patil by a margin of 14,564 votes. In 2014, he also emerged winner with 1,19,094 votes, while BJP’s Manohar Bhadane received 73,012 votes.
At the request of Congress leadership, Patil contested from Dhule Lok Sabha constituency in 2019, but lost. He was defeated by sitting BJP MP Subhash Ramrao Bhamre by a margin of 2,29,243 votes. In February this year, Patil received the ‘Lokmat Maharashtrian of the Year Award’ under the promising politician category.
Meanwhile, BJP nominee Ram Bhadane is a Zilla Parishad member and Dhule Rural Vidhan Sabha chief. As per the reports, he is the youngest candidate seeking the post of legislator in the state. He is 32.
Bhadane traces a rich political legacy. His late grandfather served as legislator several times. Besides, his father Manohar Bhadane has held the post of Zilla Parishad President, and his mother Gyanjyotai Bhadane served as the Chairperson of Dhule Panchayat Samiti, and People Appointed Sarpanch of Nagaon Gram Panchayat.
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Dhule Rural assembly constituency is located in North Maharashtra’s Dhule district. The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.
The ruling Mahayuti alliance consists of the BJP, the Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led breakaway faction of the Shiv Sena, and the deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The opposition alliance comprise the INDIA bloc’s MVA or the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which has the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), or SS (UBT) led by former CM Uddhav Thackeray, the NCP (SP) faction led by Sharad Pawar and the Congress.