Scions, stalwarts, rebels in the fray in third phase

Scions of political families, political heavyweights, stalwarts and a host of rebels — cutting across parties — are in the fray for the 14 Lok Sabha seats that go to polls on Tuesday during the third phase of elections.

These 14 seats are spread across Marathwada, Konkan, North Maharashtra and Western Maharashtra regions. The fate of 249 candidates would be sealed today.

Seven seats of Vidarbha faced elections in the first phase on April 11, and on April 18, 10 seats of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Western Maharashtra went to polls.

In the third phase, the sons and daughters of former chief ministers are contesting polls — NCP supremo Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule from Baramati, Narayan Rane's son Dr Nilesh Rane from Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg on Maharashtra Swabhimani Paksha’s ticket and Vishal Patil, the grandson of the late Vasantdada Patil, is contesting from Sangli.

Sule is pitted against Kanchan Kul, the wife of MLA Rahul Kul of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha while Nilesh takes on sitting Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut and Congress' Navinchandra Bandiwadekar. Patil, who joined the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathana (SSS), faces BJP’s Sanjaykaka Patil.

The contest is crucial in Ahmednagar, where Sujay Vikhe-Patil of the BJP, son of senior Congressman and leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, is taking on NCP's MLA Sangram Jagtap.

In Raver, Raksha Khadse, the daughter-in-law of Eknath Khadse is taking on Ulhas Patil of Congress. Pune and Raigad seats will see direct contests involving Mohan Joshi of Congress and Girish Bapat of BJP, and, Union minister Anant Geete of Sena and Sunil Tatkare of NCP, respectively.

In Aurangabad, there is a four-cornered contest involving four-time MP Chandrakant Khaire of Sena and three legislators — Subhash Zambad of Congress, Imtiaz Jaleel of AIMIM and Harsha Vardhan Jadhav, a Sena rebel, son of state BJP president Raosaheb Patil-Danve.

On the other hand, Raosaheb will take on Vilas Autade of Congress in Jalna. In Jalgaon, the contest is between Unmesh Patil of BJP and Gulabrao Deokar of NCP.

In Madha, NCP's Sanjay Shinde will take on BJP's Ranjitsinh Naik-Nimbalakar. SSS founder Raju Setti is contesting in Hatkanangale parliamentary seat against Dhariyasheel Mane, son of former Sena MP Nivedita Mane. In Kolhapur, sitting NCP MP Dhananjay Mahadik takes on Sanjay Mahadik of Sena.

In Satara, sitting NCP MP Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13 descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, takes on Narendra Patil of Sena.