KC Padvi Versus Aamshya Padavi In Akkalkuwa Seat
In the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections, the Nandubar unit of the Congress decided to field candidates for the four seats in Nandubar district: Akkalkuwa, Navapur, Nandurbar, and Shahada. In Navapur and Akkalkuwa, the grand old party is in power.
Senior Congress leader Kagda Chandya Padvi, or KC Padvi, is a Congress nominee for the Akkalkuwa seat. He belongs to the tribal community and is an advocate by profession. Representing the legislative assembly segment multiple times, Padvi possesses good working experience. He served as the tribal welfare minister in the erstwhile Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government. His son, Gowal Padavi, is a Congress MP from Nandurbar Lok Sabha constituency.
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In the 2019 assembly elections, Padavi won the seat with 82,770 votes. He defeated Shiv Sena candidate Amashya Padavi, who received only 80,674 votes. In the 2014 polls, Padavi won the seat by defeating Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Candidate Vijaysingh Paradake by a margin of 15,775 votes.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Padavi unsuccessfully contested from Nandurbar seat. He lost the seat to the BJP’s Dr Heena Vijaykumar Gavit by a margin of 95,629 votes. Though a traditional stronghold of the Congress, the BJP has been winning the Nandubar since 2014. However, in the 2024 election, Congress wrested the seat through Padavi’s son. Gowal Padavi won the seat with 7,45,998 votes, defeating Heena Gavit by a margin of 1,59,120 votes.
Aamshya Padavi is the CM Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s nominee for the Nandubar assembly seat. A key tribal face for Sena (UBT), in a major setback to the party, switched to Shinde Sena in March ahead of the Lok Sabha polls this year. Even during the Shiv Sena split in 2022, many leaders joined the Shinde faction, but Padavi remained loyal to Uddhav Thackeray. He served as the district president of the Sena as well.
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Hailing from Nandubar, Aamshya unsuccessfully contested assembly polls from the Akkalkuwa assembly segment against Padavi in 2014 and 2019. Though he lost two assembly polls, in June 2022, Aamshya got elected to the legislative council during the MVA government. Aamshya has been associating with Shiv Sena for several years and played an important role in building the party’s base in Nandubar district.
The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23.
