Will Popular Appeal Work For Chandrakant Patil In Kothrud? (image: x.com/ChDadaPatil/)
Chandrakant Patil, popularly known as Chandrakant Dada, currently serves as the Higher and Technical Education minister in the Eknath Shinde government. His leadership expertise, particularly in resolving people’s issues, efforts in the development of rural Maharashtra, and above all, a friendly approach towards people, has garnered him the status of a mass leader.
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He is seeking his second term from Kothrud Assembly constituency. He is fielded against Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Chandrakant Mokate and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) nominee Kishor Shinde. In the 2019 elections, he defeated Shinde by a margin of 25,495 votes. As per the sources from the party, fight for Kothrud constituency is a prestige battle for BJP and it has been party stronghold since 2014.
Patil started his political career by associating with Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) at the early age of 18. After working as a full-time activist for the ABVP, he joined the BJP in 2004. He held important positions such as General Secretary of the Maharashtra BJP, member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, and in 2014, he got elected as Cabinet minister and handled the Revenue, Relief & Rehabilitation, and Public Works departments.
Besides, he has worked as the Guardian Minister of Kolhapur district, Sangli district, and Pune district. Patil has served as the Maharashtra unit president of the party from 2019 to 2022.
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As a state minister, his capacity to come with quick decisions and effective implementation of processes was highly appreciated among people. His noteworthy contributions includes the pension scheme for journalists, the Bharat Ke Veer’ initiative dedicated to martyrs, and working for the loan waiver scheme to favour farmers.
Recently, former Pune BJP corporator Amol Balwadkar stated that his wrestler brother-in-law, Abhijit Katke, was raided by income tax officials because since he allegedly pose ‘challenge’ to Patil. He had sought BJP ticket for Kothrud seat, but the party declined it and gave the seat to Patil, Balwadkar argues. As per his claims, Patil had been putting pressure on the BJP to make him withdraw his demand for the Kothrud seat, adding that the party had sidelined him after he had declared his intention to contest the Assembly election, the Indian Express reports.
After the delimitation exercise in 2009, Mokate was the first MLA from the constituency. In the 2014 polls, he lost the seat to BJP candidate Medha Kulkarni and abstain from contesting the polls in 2019. Mokate expressed confidence in his return to the political fray, and said that the people will support him as he is the “sons of the soil”. The MNS has re-nominated Shinde. Despite considered Mokate as a political mentor once, Shinde is not mincing his words in the criticism over the former.
