A day after the Congress suffered a major embarrassment owing to a leaked audio clip of its state president Ashok Chavan expressing his helplessness over the choice of candidate for Chandrapur, Congress replaced him on Sunday. Shiv Sena’s sitting MLA Suresh Dhanorkar, who has joined Congress, has replaced Vinayak Bangade, who was declared candidate two days ago.

Congress also announced former IAS officer Kishor Gajbhiye as its Ramtek candidate, Hidayat Patel from Akola, Subhash Wankhede from Hingoli. In Hingoli, sitting Congress MP Rajiv Satav has been dropped from the list as he requested the party not to re-nominate him. Satav is party in-charge of Gujarat and had conveyed to the party that he would like to concentrate on the 26 Lok Sabha Sabha seats in the state.

Local Congress leaders had staunchly opposed Bangade’s candidature, while Chavan had said in the clip that he had suggested Dhanorkar’s name. Chavan, on Saturday, wrote to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) requesting the candidate to be changed.

The AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik too has been dropped from the list of candidates. Gajbhiye has replaced him from Ramtek, where Wasnik was defeated by BJP MP Krupal Tumane. “After the replacement of the Chandrapur candidate, we are confident about winning the seat as Dhanorkar is solidly backed by his Kunbi community in the constituency. Similarly, Subhash Wankhede’s candidature from Hingoli will tilt the battle in our favour. He was defeated by just 1,600 votes by Satav in 2014,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity.

Congress, late on Saturday, declared Chavan as its Nanded candidate. Chavan wanted to field his wife and sitting MLA Ameeta from the constituency, but the party insisted on his candidature. Chavan is filing his candidature on Monday.

Meanwhile, BJP announced Sunil Baburao Mendhe as its Bhandara Gondiya candidate on Sunday.

First Published: Mar 25, 2019 05:41 IST