After the audio tape controversy involving Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Sunday replaced Vinayak Bangade with Suresh alias Balu Dhanorkar, a former Shiv Sena MLA, as its official candidate from Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency in eastern Maharashtra.
A day after an audio tape in which Chavan is heard telling a party activist from Chandrapur that he was not getting his due within the party planned resign from his post as the State Congress chief, the AICC apparently took cognisance of the former Chief Minister’s grievance and replaced Bangade with Dhanorkar as the party candidate from Chandrapur.
Dhanorkar, who had been elected as a Shiv Sena MLA from Bhadrawati-Warora Assembly constituency, resigned from the Sena and joined the Congress recently in the hope that he would be a given a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls. He had been lobbying for the Congress ticket.
Bhadrawati-Warora Assembly constituency is one of the Assembly segments of the Chandrapur Lok Sabha constituency.
However, Bhangade’s nomination as a Congress candidate from Chandrapur came as a nasty surprise to Dhanorkar’s supporters.
Bhangade’s nomination had sparked protests within the local party workers and there was a vociferous clamour for his replacement with Dhanorkar.
An embarrassed Chavan had on Saturday dismissed speculation about his impending resignation as the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president, after an audio tape in which he is heard telling a party worker that “No one is listening to me. I am planning to resign” had gone viral in the State.
In the mobile conversation, the caller had voiced resentment over the nomination of Vinayak Bangade as a Congress candidate for the Chandrapur Lok Sabha seat and said that the party cadres were opposed to Bangade’s candidature.
Chavan had suggested to the caller that he should speak to Mukul Wasik, who was “calling the shots” in the selection of candidates for the state. “But Mukul Wasnik is no one in front of you,” the caller had said.
At one stage, Chavan was heard saying, “I have also informed the party. Nobody is listening to me. I am planning to resign”.
A former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Chavan was questioned about the audio tape in circulation at a news conference called to announce the formalisation of the seat-sharing arrangement among the “Mahaghatbandhan” constituents in the State.
Playing down the import of the leaked audio tape, Chavan had said that a private conversation had no relevance in politics. He had clarified that he had no plans to quit as the MPCC chief.
Chavan, however, admitted that there were certain issues relating to the nomination of a candidate for Chandrapur. “But, it is our internal matter and I would not like to discuss it publicly,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Congress has re-nominated Chavan as its candidate from his home Lok Sabha constituency of Nanded in Marathwada.
Chavan, who was incidentally is one of the two Congress candidates (out of 26 candidates) elected to Lok Sabha in 2014 polls from Maharashtra in the face of a fierce Modi wave, has been wanting that his wife Ameeta to contest from his home constituency of Nanded in Marathwada region. Ameeta Chavan had won the Bhokhar seat in Nanded district in the 2014 Assembly polls.
However, the Congress — in its list released on Saturday night — named Chavan as its candidate from Nanded — a nomination that came as a surprise to the former CM.
Barring four terms, Nanded has been under the control of the Congress since 1952. While late SB Chavan represented the constituency twice (1980 and 1984), Ashok Chavan himself was elected to Lok Sabha once in a bye-election in 1987, following the resignation of his father.
Late SB Chavan’s son-in-law and Ashokrao’s brother-in-law Bhaskarao Khatgaonkar has represented the constituency thrice (1998, 1999 and 2009). In 2014 LS polls, Chavan romped home comfortably.
In a related development, the Congress on Sunday named four Lok Sabha candidates for eastern Maharashtra — Hidayat Patel (Akola),Kishor Uttamrao Gajbhiye (Ramtek-SC), Suresh Dhanorkar (in place of Vinayak Banagade from Chandrapur), Subhash Wankhede (Hingoli).