Maharashtra education minister Deepak Kesarkar has won the last two elections- 2014 and 2019- by reducing margins and this time he might face a challenge from Rajan Teli, a Shiv Sainik turned BJP leader who was in charge of the Sawantwadi constituency that Kesarkar represents, as Teli has returned to Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray.
Teli has an interesting past. He was a close aide of former union minister and current BJP MP Narayan Rane. When Rane quit Shiv Sena in 2005 and joined Congress, Teli went along with his boss and joined the party. Since then he has been a Congressman, an NCP leader, a BJP leader and now he is back to Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray.
According to local media reports, when he joined Shiv Sena on Friday Teli said that his biggest mistake was to leave Sena along with Rane. He has been a member of the legislative council as a Congressman for one term. He wrote to BJP leadership that he does not agree with the party's decision to have three elected representatives in a small district in one family, his obvious target was the Rane family as Rane is a member of the recently elected Lok Sabha and his son Nitesh who represents Kankavli constituency in the state legislature.
There is already a talk that Rane’s elder son Nilesh, who has been a Congress MP for one term, is likely to get a ticket for the Kudal assembly constituency from BJP.
Teli contested from Sawantwadi constituency in 2014 and 2019. The first one was on a BJP ticket and the second one was as independent as BJP was in alliance with united Shiv Sena back then. His opponent was education minister Deepak Kesarkar.
Kesarkar won on both occasions, with a reducing margin though. In 2019 Kesarkar defeated Teli by a margin of 13,228 votes. Now, Teli could be Shiv Sena UBT candidate against Kesarkar. Kesarkar told media in Nanded that Teli should contest elections if he wants to make a hat trick of defeats.