Mumbai, Feb 14 (IANS): The Congress on Wednesday fielded prominent Dalit leader and the party’s Maharashtra Working President Chandrakant D. Handore, as its candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

The development comes nearly 20 months after he suffered an embarrassing defeat in the June 2022 biennial elections as Member of the Legislative Council, due to cross-voting.

Chandrakant D. Handore lost despite being the Congress’ first-choice candidate, shocking the party bigwigs in Maharashtra and Delhi alike.

Chandrakant D. Handore is expected to file his nomination papers on Thursday in a massive show of strength planned by the Congress and its various organisations, plus Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi allies like the Shiv Sena-UBT and Nationalist Congress Party-SP.

A prominent Dalit leader in the party, Chandrakant D. Handore, 67, has been a former Municipal Corporator, later Mayor of Mumbai, a two-time MLA and state minister for several years, while his wife Sangita Handore is a former BMC Municipal Corporator.

He has served as a Vice-President of Maharashtra Congress, plus was in-charge of the crucial Mumbai Congress, and is founder of a social organisation, Bhim Shakti.

He has been serving as the state party Working President since February 2021.