Maharashtra: Sanjayakaka Patil, BJP Candidate From Sangli Constituency (image-facebook/Sanjaykaka Patil)

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Sanjaykaka Patil as its candidate from the Sangli constituency. This will be the third time the BJP leader will be contesting the election as the BJP candidate.

The Sangli constituency used to be the bastion of Congress as they won consecutively from 1962 to 2009. But the grand old party faced defeat when the Sanjaykaka Patil won against the sitting Congress MP Pratik Patil in 2014. In the 2019 general elections, Vishal Patil contested as Swabhimani Shetkari candidate after the Congress gave the seat to an alliance partner but faced defeat from Sanjaykaka Patil with a vote difference of around 1.6 lakh votes.

Sanjaykaka has served as the vice president of Sangli Municipal Corporation and President of the Indian Youth Congress in Sangli district. In 1996, Sanjaykaka was a member of Zila Parishad and arranged the fronts against the Government for the farmer”s problems in Sangli district. He was also the President of Shri Ganapati Jilha Krushi Audyogik Sarv Seva Sahkari Society, Sangli. And also has been a former President of Annasaheb M K Patil Arthik Vikas Mahamandel, Maharashtra.

Before finalizing the name of Sanjakaka in Sangli, the party had to face certain issues. Sanjaykaka was also a member of the Legislative assembly council of Maharashtra from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). He was competing with NCP Leader R R Patil for the Tasgaon- Kavathe Mahankal legislative assembly.

But Sanjaykaka faced defeat in the Tasgaon assembly. In February 2014, after leaving the National Congress party he joined the saffron party. He won the Sangli seat with a majority of 2,38,000 votes.