Kolhapur: Redrawing its poll strategy for the prestigious Madha Lok Sabha constituency, the BJP has picked up former Congressman Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalkar as its candidate.Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, who joined the BJP last week and was the top choice for the party, is likely to be accommodated in the legislative council.Naik-Nimbalkar, who hails from politically powerful family of Phaltan, was the Satara district Congress president and appointed Satara district president two months ago with the initiative of former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.Naik-Nimbalkar, however, quit the party and officially joined the BJP on Monday in presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and revenue minister Chandrakant Patil.Speaking on the occasion, Naik-Nimbalkar had said that his fight was against Baramati leaders who have always discriminated people. “Fadnavis never looked into party affiliation for development works,” he said.Sources in the BJP said that Naik-Nimbalkar was in touch with the party for a long time and had several rounds of discussions before taking the final decision. BJP sources said that rapidly changing political situation in Madha constituency forced the party to review its candidate.BJP leaders feel that Mohite-Patil’s nomination would have turned the election into tussle between two families instead of two political parties. Sources said that party wanted to dilute the opposition to Mohite-Patil’s family by nominating some other candidate.Madha Lok Sabha constituency has two assembly segments — Phaltan and Maan that are in Satara district. BJP expects that Naik-Nimbalkar can fetch votes from these two segments which will be helpful for the party.“A meeting between Mohite-Patil’s family and Naik-Nimbalkar took place at Akluj last week. Mohite-Patil’s family assured to actively campaign for him. The family has influence in three assembly segments which may prove decisive. Several Congress and NCP workers in Solapur and Satara district are in touch with the party assuring help in the election,” a BJP leader said.Mohite-Patil’s traditional constituency, Malshiras, is reserved since 2009 and he cannot contest from there. Sources in the BJP also hinted that Mohite-Patil would be accommodated in the ministry in the future.NCP has high stakes in Madha since the constituency was represented by Sharad Pawar from 2009 to 2014. Pawar had himself announced his intention to fight current election from Madha, but later withdrew the decision.Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil had insisted on the candidature for his son Ranjitsinh which was not accepted by the NCP. Thus, Mohite-Patil family switched over to the BJP and NCP announced Sanjay Shinde, president of Solapur zilla parishad, as its candidate.

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