Salil Deshmukh: Stepping Into His Father's Shoes In Katol (image:facebook.com/SalilDeshmukhNCP)

Katol, Maharashtra: Senior NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader Anil Deshmukh’s son Salil Deshmukh is contesting his debut election from Katol. Although the party at first announced Deshmukh, stalwart from Vidarbha as their candidate for assembly polls, it later decided to field his son. Closely following father in his political field, Salil’s debut electoral victory in the Zilla Parishad election in 2020 has also added an advantage to his nomination.

The assembly segment has been represented by Anil Deshmukh since 1995. In his debut election, he contested as an independent candidate, and in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2019 on the NCP ticket. The NCP was an undivided party then. In the 2019 polls, Deshmukh won the seat by defeating BJP candidate Charansing Babulalji Thakur by a margin of 17,057 votes.

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Deshmukh has also served as the home minister in the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government. In November 2021, he got arrested by ED on money laundering charges registered against him by the CBI. Two months later, the High Court granted bail to Deshmukh.

A coincidence in the name is the talking point in the Katol assembly election. Salil is fielded against Anil Shankarrao Deshmukh of the NCP (Ajit Pawar). A similarity in the opponent candidate’s name with his father, who is not only a five-time MLA but maintains considerable popularity in the constituency, is posing a tough challenge to Salil.

Besides, Anil Shankarrao Deshmukh will contest on the ‘clock’ symbol, which was earlier associated with undivided NCP and has been used by Salil’s father till the last election. Currently, the symbol is with the Ajit Pawar faction. According to political experts, the NCP (Ajit Pawar)’s Anil Deshmukh contesting under the ‘clock’ symbol could negatively impact the vote share of Salil, who will be contesting under the ‘man blowing the trumpet’ symbol of the NCP (Sharad Pawar).

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The 288 Assembly seats in Maharashtra will go to polls on November 20 and counting of votes will take place on November 23. The Assembly elections mark first one in the state after Shiv Sena and  NCP split in 2022, and 2023 respectively.