BJP’s Unmesh battles with own in Jalgaon

Mumbai, April 22

With memories of a two decade-old sex scandal refusing to fade away, the BJP didn’t think twice about dropping its Jalgaon MP, AT (Nana) Patil, when a sex video featuring him surfaced last year. Nana Patil had won from Jalgaon with a margin of 3.83 lakh votes in 2014. 

After blaming rivals within the party for the leak of the sleaze video, Patil quietly fell in line as the BJP leadership chose to replace him with Smita Wagh, who is the wife of BJP president from Jalgaon, Uday Wagh.

But with sections of the party refusing to work with Smita, the BJP dumped her shortly after she filed her nomination and nominated Unmesh Patil, MLA from the Chalisgaon Assembly segment which falls under the Jalgaon LS constituency.

Now, the BJP has to tackle at least two strong faction leaders in order to give Unmesh a winning chance, which has emerged as a saffron stronghold in recent years. — TNS