Sharad Pawar's NCP declared the first list of candidates in which Lanke’s name figures.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday held meetings here to discuss his party's preparations and candidates for the Beed and Satara Lok Sabha constituencies in Maharashtra.
Shiv Sangram party leader Jyoti Mete, who is interested in contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha poll from Beed constituency, met Pawar at his residence 'Silver Oak' in Mumbai.
Bajrang Sonawane, who had joined the Ajit Pawar-led NCP and recently returned to the opposition NCP (SP), is also keen on getting a ticket from Beed.
The NCP(SP) will be pitted in Beed against BJP leader and former state minister Pankaja Munde.
Shashikant Shinde, the MLC from the Sharad Pawar group, also met the latter for a discussion over the Satara seat.
With Satara's sitting NCP (SP) MP Shrinivas Patil withdrawing from the fray due to health issues, Sharad Pawar is considering other names for the seat.
Maharashtra NCP (SP) president Jayant Patil on Sunday met Congress leader and former CM Prithviraj Chavan in Karad, amid speculation about the latter's possibility of being the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi's (MVA) candidate from Satara.
But Chavan made it clear that he was ready to contest provided he is the Congress candidate.
The MVA comprises the NCP (SP), Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT).
Chavan represented Satara in Parliament in the 1990s but was defeated by Shrinivas Patil in 1999 after Sharad Pawar walked out of the Congress and formed the Nationalist Congress Party.
The NCP has since fielded candidates from Satara.
Elections to the 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra will be held in five phases from April 19 to May 20.