Cong-NCP tussle for Ahmednagar LS seat continues

Pune: NCP chief Sharad Pawar was reported to have said on Friday that his party was willing to give up the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha seat to the Congress, raising hopes in the Vikhe Patil family of the entry of its third generation in electoral politics. Within hours, the NCP clarified that Pawar had made no such statement.
State NCP chief Jayant Patil said the party had not given up its claim on the Ahmednagar seat.The seat-sharing talks between the Congress and the NCP are stuck over who will field a candidate from Ahmednagar.
Sujay Vikhe Patil, son of leader of the opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, is keen on contesting the Lok Sabha election from Ahmednagar, a traditional stronghold of the family, credited with establishing a network of cooperatives and educational institutes in Pravaranagar and the region. Sujay’s grandfather, Balasaheb, had represented the Ahmednagar Lok Sabha constituency for eight terms.
Asked about the Ahmednagar seat during a media interaction at Akluj in Solapur, Pawar was reported to have said that they were ready to give up the seat for Congress. The statement even reached Sujay and he went to his reaction to it.
“I shall live up to the trust and confidence that the NCP chief has shown in us,” he said. “Taking forward this confidence, I assure that both parties will grow bigger in the constituency and the results would be positive.”
A neurosurgeon by profession, Sujay said he would not let anybody down with this opportunity coming his way.
He had in December said he would contest the election from Ahmednagar even if the Congress did not nominate him.