Mumbai, April 8 (IANS): Congress nominee and former Union Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s daughter Praniti Shinde on Monday received a major boost after her political rival and veteran Communist leader Narsayya Adam extended support to her.

Praniti is pitted against BJP nominee Ram Satpute. Adam hogged the headlines after he shared a dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January this year at the inauguration of the Ray Nagar Pradhanmantri Avas Yojana housing colony, a township of 15,000 houses at Kumbhari in Solapur district. Adam had conceived the project and took it to the Centre during the UPA rule and later followed it up during the BJP-led NDA government since 2014.

Adam’s decision came after Praniti met him in his office to seek his support. ‘’During the last 10 years there was no vision for development and political will,’’ he said and declared his support to the Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra and to the INDIA Alliance at the national level during the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP had held the Solapur Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 and 2019 elections defeating the Congress nominee and former Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde.

Adam has staked claim to the Solapur Central assembly seat for the CPM saying that he has already held talks with NCP SP chief Sharad Pawar, Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray chief Uddhav Thackeray and state Congress chief Nana Patole. ‘’Accordingly, it was decided that the Solapur Central assembly seat will be made after talks with Congress leader Sonia Gandhi. Former minister Sushilkumar Shinde has conveyed to me that he would not have any objection if the Congress high command gives its go ahead,’’he said.

Adam had won the assembly elections in 1978, 1995 and 2004 but he lost to Praniti in the 2009 elections and thereafter in the 2014 and 2019 polls. Even though Adam had extended his support to the Congress-led UPA at the national level, the situation was different in Solapur due to the rivalry with Praniti and her father.