Court junks plea against NCP candidate’s nomination from Maharashtra’s Mohol seat

In a relief to Ajit Pawar’s NCP, a candidate who had challenged the acceptance of party candidate Yashwant Mane’s nomination form has withdrawn his plea from the Bombay High Court. Mane is the NCP candidate from the Mohol Assembly seat in Maharashtra’s Solapur district.
The court on Thursday granted the withdrawal after a bench of Justices Arif Doctor and Somsekhar Sundaresan indicated they were not in favour of the petitioner.
Petitioner Nagnath Kshirsagar argued that Mane, from the Kaikadi caste, was ineligible to contest from Mohol as the seat is reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC). Mane had earlier won the seat in the 2019 Assembly polls on an NCP ticket.
Kshirsagar’s lawyer, Anant Vadgaonkar, claimed that Kaikadi caste members qualify as Scheduled Caste in only eight districts of Maharashtra, but not in Solapur district.
In response, Mane’s lawyer, Jagdish Reddy, argued that Kshirsagar’s challenge was invalid, as it raised factual disputes unsuitable for resolution under Article 226 of the Constitution, which enforces fundamental rights. Mane also pointed out that a similar challenge had previously been dismissed by the Nagpur bench of the High Court in 2020.
The High Court observed that while the petitioner could raise broader questions about the Scheduled Caste status of Kaikadi in specific districts, it found no grounds to support the challenge to Mane’s nomination. Kshirsagar’s lawyer then withdrew the plea, reserving the right to pursue other legal avenues.
Maharashtra, which has 288 Assembly seats, will vote in a single phase on November 20. Counting of votes will take place three days later.