Kolhapur Zilla Parishad president and vice-president polls to be held today

KOLHAPUR: Elections for the posts of president and vice-president of the Kolhapur Zilla Parishad is going to take place on Monday.
Rahul Patil, son of Congress MLA P N Patil, is expected to get the official nomination from the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
The MVA alliance of Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP have 34 elected representatives on its side and few independents.The halfway mark to win the posts is 33. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance has 24 elected members. BJP functionaries, such as Dhananjay Mahadik, are trying to get those on the fence on their side.
So far, the BJP has received the support of Jan Surajya Shakti’s six members, the Prakash Awade-led front with one member, and the Chandgad Aghadi’s one member. Currently, the BJP has 32 on its side and is trying to woo the Raju Shetti’s Swabhimani Paksha that has two members.
The MVA, meanwhile, has claimed that it has the support of independent members, which should help it get through comfortably.
The MVA leaders are facing a tough task in selecting the right candidate for the president’s post. NCP leader and minister Hasan Mushrif is trying to get NCP’s elected member as the official nominee. However, his efforts have met resistance from Congress MLA P N Patil, who wants his son Rahul Patil to be the president.
All members of the MVA front have been accommodated in a resort at Panhala, a famous hill station in the Kolhapur district. MVA leaders — ministers Satej Patil and Hasan Mushrif and MP Sanjay Mandlik — have held a couple of rounds of talks with the elected members. According to the sources, due to P N Patil’s pressure tactics of meeting Shetti and dialing opposition leaders, the MVA leaders are learned to have given up their demand and have shown readiness to make Rahul Patil the official nominee and thereby the president of the Zilla Parishad.