Amid sharp differences within the ruling Mahayuti in Maharashtra, top leaders of the BJP, Shiv Sena, and the NCP swung into a major damage-control exercise on Wednesday to ensure the tussle doesn’t impact their performance in the upcoming legislative council elections.
In a joint press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday, state BJP president Ravindra Chavan, NCP state chief Sunil Tatkare and Shiv Sena leader Rahul Shewale declared the official list of 17 candidates. They also underlined that these 17 candidates would contest as Mahayuti nominees. They expressed confidence that all rebels who have filed nominations will be made to withdraw by June 4.
Elections for 17 seats in the legislative council will take place on June 18.
While the BJP has named eleven candidates, Shiv Sena four and NCP two. This election season has seen massive unrest among Shiv Sena leaders who have accused the BJP of denying its alliance partners their due share. Former Shiv Sena minister Abdul Sattar on Tuesday accused the BJP of high-handedness.
The list of rebels runs long. Former Shiv Sena MLC Viplav Bajoria filed a nomination as an independent after being denied a ticket. In Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Abdul Sattar fielded his son Sameer as a rebel candidate against the official Mahayuti (BJP) nominee. At Jalgaon, Shiv Sena leaders Reshma Kale and Deepak Dhande rebelled against the official alliance candidate. At Satara-Sangli, Shiv Sena leader Tanaji Patil filed his nomination against the official BJP-led alliance candidate.
Addressing the press conference, Chavan said, “The message from Mahayuti is loud and clear. We have knowledge about 17 official candidates across three parties. We appeal to voters to consider the official list.” He also exuded confidence that the rebels would withdraw before the June 4 deadline.
Downplaying the differences within the coalition, Chavan said, “The list of candidates and division of seats party-wise was done collectively and by consensus. It was approved by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.”
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Insiders indicate that Sattar’s attack against the BJP, accusing it of slow poisoning and decapitating Shiv Sena, has not gone down well with top leaders in the BJP. It has urged Shinde to rein in Sena leaders and adhere to coalition norms.
Late Tuesday night, Shinde held meetings with party leaders and office-bearers and Sattar was categorically told to clarify his stand.
Sattar also offered to meet Chief Minister Fadnavis to apologise for his outburst.
Tatkare said, “The NCP candidates’ names were shortlisted in a meeting which was attended by alliance partners Shiv Sena and BJP. All these whispers of disputes over seat sharing and candidates are baseless.”
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Shiv Sena leader Shewale said, “All these issues regarding rebels and remarks by Sattar were taken note of and addressed by Shinde.”
Earlier, Chavan dismissed the question about ‘outsiders’ getting better political opportunities in the BJP. He said, “All the decisions are taken after adequate consultation and on the merit of candidates.” The BJP, he said, has never ignored its loyalists.
According to the list of 17 candidates, the eleven BJP candidates are Pravin Potdar (Nagpur), Avinash Brahmankar (Bhandara- Gondia), Arun Lakhani (Wardha- Chandrapur-Gadchiroli), Rajendra Raut (Solapur), Prajakt Tanpure (Ahmednagar), Nandkishore Mahajan (Jalgaon), Dhairyasheel Kadam (Sangli-Satara) and Suhas Shirsat (Aurangabad-Jalna).
The four candidates from the Shiv Sena are Ravindra Phatak (Thane), Dushyant Chaturvedi (Yavatmal), Saeed Khan (Parbhani-Hingoli) and Naresh Darade (Nashik). And the NCP candidates are Aniket Darade (Raigad-Ratnagiri-Sindhudurg) and Vikram Kakade (Pune).
