Congress fields ex-MP's son for Nanded Lok Sabha bypoll

Nanded : Congress on Thursday named Ravindra Chavan as its candidate for the Nov 20 bypoll for the Nanded Lok Sabha seat. He will face AIMIM's former Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel, who also declared his plans to contest the byelection soon after Ravindra's candidature was announced.

Ravindra is the son of deceased Congress MP Vasant Chavan, who died on Aug 26 due to a kidney ailment, making the bypoll necessary for the seat. The local Congress unit had already passed a resolution in support of Ravindra's candidature.

Ravindra told News Agency that the people of Nanded would ensure his victory in the bypoll. "The voters supported my father by handing him a comfortable win. Even if many stalwarts left the Congress, voters are loyal to the party. In tribute to my father, the voters will ensure victory for me," he said.

This means his candidature would be under the party. Jaleel said the party workers from Nanded had urged party chief Asaduddin Owaisi to field him for the Lok Sabha seat. "We must respect the sentiments of the party workers. We have a very strong party base in Nanded. Everything is fair in love and war and elections, he said".

While speculations were rife that Jaleel might contest the assembly poll from Aurangabad East against BJP minister Atul Save, he ruled out the possibility.

A few weeks before Lok Sabha polls' announcement in Feb, Jaleel had declared that he plans to contest Lok Sabha polls from the Mumbai North Central constituency by abandoning the seat of Aurangabad. While his declaration created a ripple, later it transpired that was a mere strategy to keep the electorates in a to-do mode, as also the opponents since he did not win from Aurangabad in Lok Sabha Elections.

Such a stand, if at all taken by Jaleel, would endorse the fact that his party is the 'B team' of BJP, said Ravindra on AIMIM wanting to contest the Nanded bypoll.

Whereas the Congress has announced its candidate for the Nanded bypoll, the BJP is yet to announce any name. However, the name doing the rounds in political circles is that of Pratap Patil Chikhalikar. Chikhalikar was seeking his second term as an MP from Nanded when he lost to Vasant Chavan by over 59,000 votes.