Congress fields former BJP MLA Ashish Deshmukh against Fadnavis

Nagpur: The Congress on Thursday fielded former BJP MLA Ashish Deshmukh as its candidate from the Nagpur South West seat against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

The name of Deshmukh, who is a strong supporter of the demand for a separate state of Vidarbha, was announced in the list of 19 candidates finalised on Thursday night.

His father Ranjit Deshmukh (former Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief and a state minister) had been defeated by Fadnavis from Nagpur West constituency in the 2004 assembly election.

Ashish Deshmukh was elected from the Katol Assembly seat from BJP in year 2014. However, he had resigned from the saffron party in October last year.

Deshmukh and Fandavis will file their nomination papers in Nagpur on Friday.