Will contest poll, if party wants: Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil

A day after creating a flutter by publicly declaring that he would not be contesting the forthcoming Assembly, parliamentary polls, Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil on Friday claimed that a decision about his candidature would be decided by his party.

Patil on Thursday created a flutter by saying in Kolhapur that henceforth ‘he would not contest any of the Lok sabha, assembly or even MLC polls.

“I don’t want to fight the Lok Sabha polls, assembly polls or the MLC post. Hence forth I will not contest in any polls.”said Patil while speaking during a prize distribution ceremony in Kolhapur.


Patil’s announcement came as a shock to many as he was considered to be very close to Amit Shah and is known to be Shah’s eyes and ears in the Maharashtra government. Patil is the number 2 in the state cabinet after Devendra Fadnavis, in fact whenever there has been a buzz in political circles that Fadnavis could be replaced as CM, Patil’s name has cropped up as the alternative as he is considered very close to BJP Chief Amit Shah and also belongs to the Maratha community.

Patil who has close ties with the RSS and has been a long time member of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). Patil came in to contact with Shah when the former was with the Gujarat ABVP.

On Friday Patil who was in Mumbai claimed that his remarks on Thursday were ‘spoken in a different context and that he would be contesting the polls if his party wants him to.'

The Revenue Minister also defended Party MLA Ram Kadam who talked of ‘kidnapping’ unwilling women and marrying them off to boys if they approached him saying that Kadam had apologized and the matter should be laid to rest. “There is no reason for creating such a noise over such an issue. He has apologized and he helps women a lot in his constituency and there are so many women trying rakhi to him so the matter should be laid to rest.”said Patil while speaking to the media.