A day after the political situation dramatically deteriorated in Assembly poll-bound Maharashtra after a split in two major electoral alliances, five major political parties, the Congress, NCP, Shiv Sena, BJP and MNS, found it difficult to nominate their candidates to all the 288 Assembly constituencies across the State, owing to the lack of a sufficient number of good nominees and the last-minute switch over of candidates from one party to another.
With less than 24 hours to go for the closure of nominations for the October 15 polls, none of the five major political parties had finalized their full list of 288 candidates till late on Friday night
Given that the BJP had meetings with the party’s office-bearers and elected representatives from all over the State and the fact that it might set aside 30 to 35 seats for the four smaller allies from the erstwhile Maha-Yuti, the BJP is relatively better-placed than the four other major parties.
Sources in the BJP said the party’s senior leaders were holding seat-sharing talks with leaders of all the smaller allies, the Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Paksha, the Mahadev Jankar-led Rashtriya Samaj Paksha, Vinayak Mete-led Shiv Sangram and Ramdas Athawale-led RPI(A). Significantly, the RPI(A) was initially contemplating going with the Shiv Sena, but it has now decided to go with the BJP, especially as Athawale, currently a Rajya Sabha member, was promised a berth in the Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet.
Parties like the ruling Congress and NCP, reeling under a strong anti-incumbency wave never seen before, find themselves in a most challenging situation, as they look for candidates in constituencies where they had not put up candidates in the last two Assembly elections which they had contested as an alliance.
In the 2004 polls, the Congress had contested 164 seats, while the NCP had put up candidates in 124 constituencies. In the 2009 polls, the Congress had contested 170 seats and won 82 seats while the NCP had contested 113 seats and bagged 62 seats. This time around, the two parties are contesting 288 seats each.
Some of the Congress-NCP functionaries, who would have been nominated as candidates, have quit and joined other parties.
For instance, former State Minister Sunil Deshmukh, who had successfully contested from Amravati constituency in 1999 and 2004 on a Congress ticket but was denied a ticket in 2009 to accommodate then President Pratibha Patil’s son Raosaheb Shekhawat, has joined the BJP. The BJP is fielding Deshmukh against the Congress’ sitting MlA Raosaheb.
“We offered a Congress ticket to Deshmukh to contest from the neighbouring Achalpur constituency but he was not willing to contest from there. Because, he was bent upon contesting from Amravati constituency. That’s why he has moved to the BJP,” a senior state Congress leader said.
Some of the others to switch over were, NCP’s Surekha Thakare who joined the Shiv Sena two days ago. Another NCP leader Sulabhatai Khodke, who was expelled from the party during the last lok Sabha elections, has joined Congress and been rewarded with candidature from Badnera.
On the other hand Vasudhatai Deshmukh of the Congress joined the NCP, which is fielding her as its candidate from Achalpur. Similarly in Melghat, BJP’s Rajkumar Patel switched over to the NCP recently and would contest from there. Dr Anil Bonde, a sitting Independent MlA from Morshi and a former Shiv Sena leader, has joined the BJP.
Notwithstanding the brave face put up by its leadership in the wake of the long-term saffron ally snapping ties with it, the Shiv Sena is equally hard pressed both for lack of sufficient candidates and time to scout around for them.
The only saving grace is that Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, anticipating that the BJP would break up with it, had interacted with office-bearers and party workers from some of the districts of Vidarbha and Marathwada, in a bid to look for Sena candidates in constituencies currently held by the BJP.
The Shiv Sena faced rebellion after the party released its first list of candidates for Mumbai. An upset senior Sena functionary Shrikant Sarmalkar announced his decision to contest the Assembly polls as an Independent, after the party decided to re-nominate its sitting MlA Bala Sawant as its candidate from Bandra (East), a constituency where Uddhav Thackeray lives.
A former confidant of senior Maharashtra Minister Narayan Rane, Sarmalkar had returned to the Shiv Sena in March 2011, six years after he had left the Sena along with Rane and joined the Congress. Sarmalkar was hoping that he would be fielded as a Sena candidate from Bandra (East)
On its part, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS - which has released its second list of 71 candidates, taking the total number of candidates nominated by it so far to 223, may claim it has had a smooth sailing on the candidates’ selection front. But, the fact remains that most of its candidates are new and raw political faces and have little chances of winning the polls.
In the 2009 Assembly polls, the Raj Thackeray-led MNS had contested as many as 142 out of 288 seats in the State and won 13 seats. The then fledgling party had polled as many as 5.71 per cent (25,85,597 votes) of the total votes polled. In the seats it had contested, the MNS had polled 11.88 per cent votes.
However, in the 2014 lok Sabha polls, the MNS put up a miserable performance. Not only did all its ten candidates lose their deposits, the MNS vote share was reduced from 4.6 per cent in the 2009 lok Sabha polls to just 1.5 per cent, even lower than Aam Aadmi Party’s 2.2 per cent, Bahujan Samaj Party’s 2.6 per cent, and much smaller Swabhimani Paksha’s 2.3 per cent.
His party’s poor performance in the 2014 lok Sabha polls notwithstanding, Raj Thackeray is hoping to do well in the October 15 Assembly polls. However, other major political parties do not share his optimism.
UPHIllTASK