In Nanded North, Sangita Patil of Sena (UBT) & Cong’s Abdul Sattar in triangular contest

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Clearing the air on the official Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate, Ambadas Danve, the leader of opposition in the Maharashtra legislative council, said Sangita Patil has been chosen to contest the Nanded North assembly seat, where Congress has already declared the candidature of Abdul Sattar.The seat is currently represented by Shiv Sena MLA Balaji Kalyankar. Though initially he had claimed that he was in the Uddhav Thackeray camp, he eventually sided with Eknath Shinde. To settle the score with Kalyankar, who is seeking a second term, the Shiv Sena (UBT) workers pushed to contest this seat. However, as per the MVA seat-sharing formula, the Nanded North assembly seat is allotted to Congress, which has fielded Nanded's former mayor Abdul Sattar against Kalyankar. Sources said given that the constituency always gave a considerable chunk of votes to Shiv Sena in the past elections, Sena (UBT) wanted to retain this seat for itself and cause Kalyankar's defeat.This is the first time Sena (UBT) has officially confirmed fielding Sangita Patil as its official candidate. Danve said, "Sangita Patil is our party's official candidate. We appeal to people to cast their votes in favour of a loyalist and ensure a traitor gets defeated."He refused to comment on MVA fielding the former mayor as the official candidate. With Sangita Patil's entry, it has become a triangular fight in the constituency where there are 33 candidates in the fray.The local Congress unit has expressed its displeasure over Sena (UBT) fielding a candidate against Abdul Sattar. DP Savant of Congress had represented this constituency in 2009 and 2014, before losing the election to Kalyankar in 2019.
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