Nashik: The NCP has given the Raver Lok Sabha seat to Congress as they were unable to find a suitable candidate.The NCP had also offered the seat to former Congress MP Ulhas Patil but it was turned down as the leader did not want to quit the grand old party.NCP’s state chief Jayant Patil on Friday tweeted that NCP has agreed to give the Raver seat to Congress as the latter was insisting for it. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik also confirmed that the seat has been given to Congress.“NCP has been losing the Raver seat for the past two elections. On the contrary, Congress has a strong base in the constituency. Hence, we has been insisting NCP to leave the seat for Congress,” a senior Congress leader said.Congress will declare the name of the candidates by Saturday and Patil is the front-runner to get the ticket. During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Patil had on contested Raver seat as an independent candidate and had got 21,332 votes.The sitting BJP MP Raksha Khadse had defeated NCP’s Manish Jain by a margin of 3.18 lakh votes. This time too, BJP has fielded Khadse from Raver and she has already filed her nomination.Initially, the NCP had agreed to leave Raver seat to Congress in exchange for Ratnagiri seat. But the Congress suddenly announced its candidate in Ratnagiri and this forced the NCP to not give the Raver seat to Congress.Jayant Patil and former minister Jitendra Avhad also met leaders from both NCP and Congress in Jalgaon. During the meeting, Patil gave an offer to Ulhas Patil to contest from Raver on NCP ticket, but the latter denied it.The filing of nominations for Raver and Jalgaon parliamentary constituencies in North Maharashtra began on Thursday.

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