Maharashtra: Two loyalists and a turncoat

The BJP kept its date with a new entrant, Ashok Chavan, awarding him a Rajya Sabha ticket from Maharashtra on Wednesday. While a turncoat leader got his due, the ruling party chose loyalists Medha Kulkarni and Dr Ajit Gopchade for the other two vacancies, and kept political circles guessing about the possibility of fielding the fourth candidate before the party leadership said there was no such plan.

Another turncoat Congress leader, Milind Deora, who had joined the Shinde Sena last month, will be the CM-led party's candidate. The Congress compensated a Dalit leader Chandrakant Handore for its inability to get him elected in the Legislative Council elections in 2022. Among the Opposition parties, only the Congress has adequate strength in the electoral college of Vidhan Sabha. Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party hadn't announced its candidate. Sena can win one and the BJP three, and it can go for the fourth if it wants voting instead of an unopposed election for six positions. Nominations close on February 16. Voting, if necessary, will be held on February 27 and results announced the same day.

Nana Patole state unit president, Congress; (right) Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Narayan Rane. Pic/Ashish Raje

Chavan thanked PM Narendra Modi and other senior leaders of his new party for the ‘trust shown in him'. The two loyalists were happy to be given national roles.
Justice done

BJP dropped all sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, including minister Narayan Rane, who is expected to contest the Lok Sabha elections. Though hot contenders Vinod Tawde and Pankaja Munde did not find their names, the ex-MLA from Pune Kulkarni was rehabilitated for denying her an Assembly poll ticket in 2019. Her constituency was given to an ‘imported' candidate Chandrakant Patil. The denial had upset the party's core voters and loyal workers. With a new boost, Kulkarni can get her political career - which was under threat because of a bigshot leader's encroachment - rolling further.

A doctor & karsevak

In 2020's Legislative Council polls, the BJP had asked a low-profile Dr Gopchade from Nanded in Marathwada to withdraw for Ramesh Karad. The OBC leader has been awarded a bigger gift for his sacrifice. The practising paediatrician started in the RSS and BJP's student wing and graduated to the senior level as the vice-president of the state unit. He has built a medical cell. He had been an active karsevak during the Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Dr Gopchade's candidature has neutralised whatever resentment the nomination of Chavan, a high-profile Maratha import from Nanded, may have caused among local BJP workers.

‘Thriving on imports'

State Congress president Nana Patole said that the list of the BJP and its allies showed that they depended on the leaders imported from other parties. "I pity the party that brags about being the largest in the world but does not have its own leaders to contest the polls. The original BJP workers should keep cleaning the floors to welcome the turncoats," he said at a media conference while comparing the BJP's new entrants with substandard Chinese imports.

He added that the Congress had shown a great respect for the loyalists like Handore.

Patole denied an allegation that he was responsible for the exit of senior leaders. "I have won all the elections for the party ever since I took over as the state president. Were these leaders upset because of my track record?" he wondered.

He said there would be no cross-voting because the Rajya Sabha elections were held in open voting. "The voters will have to show the ballot to the party agent deputed (in the polling hall). I will be there, checking the ballots," said Patole about the preferential polling.

Feb 16
Day nominations close