In what came as a big disappointment for two of its disgruntled leaders, the BJP on Friday denied party tickets to its former Ministers Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde to contest the Maharashtra Legislative Council polls scheduled for May 21.
In a clear indication of the fact that the party leadership is in no mood to rehabilitate the two side-lined leaders, the BJP ignored the claims of Khadse and Pankaja, two other ticket hopefuls Ram Kadam and Harshvardhan Patil, and nominated Praveen Dhatke, Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patiol, Dr Ajit Gopchade and Gopichand Paralkar as its candidates for the State Council polls.
Pankaja had created a stir in the BJP in December last year ahead of her late father Gopinath Munde’s 70th birth anniversary by joining hands with Khadse, announcing her resignation from the party’s core group and daring the party leadership to sack her from the party.
Even Khadse has also made no bones about the manner in which he has been sidelined in the party on December 2 last year, after meeting BJP leader Pankaja Munde, Khadse had made a shocking allegation after meeting her that Pankaja and his daughter Rohini Khadse in the recent State Assembly polls were defeated due to a conspiracy hatched by some party leaders.
Meanwhile, all the four candidates nominated by the BJP filed their papers for the May 21 Council polls, on Friday. The last date of filing nominations is May 11.
The biennial elections have been necessitated by the retirement on April 24 of nine members Neelam Diwakar Gorhe (Shiv Sena), Hemant Prabhakar Takle, Anand Rajendra Thakur (both NCP) Smita Uday Wagh, Prithviraj Sayajirao Deshmukh (both BJP), Kiran Jagannath Pawaskar, Arunbhau Janardan Adasad (both NCP), Chandrakant Batesing Raghuvanshi (Congress) and Harisingh Narsu Rathod (BJP).
If the May 21 Council poll has assumed political significance, it is because Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is contesting the election.
Uddhav, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister on November 28 last year, is not a member of either of the Houses of the State Legislature. As provided under the Constitution, Uddhav will in the normal course have to get elected to either of the Houses on or before May 27, the six-month deadline for his becoming a member of either of the Houses.
Each party needs 29 votes to ensure its candidates elected to the Upper House of the State Asssembly.
Though it does not have enough strength to ensure the election of all its four candidate, the BJP is taking chances in the hope that there would be some cross voting in the police. The BJP has a strength of 105 in the 288-member State Assembly. But, it needs 116 votes to ensure that all four its candidates are elected.
On its part, the NCP has nominated Amol Mitkari and Shashikant Shinde as its candidates for the poll, while the Shiv Sena will nominate Uddhav Thackeray and Dr Neelam Gorhe, who is the current deputy chairman in legislative council.
With a strength of 44 members in the State Assembly, the Congress can have one of its candidate get elected in the normal course. After the election of its candidate, the Congress will have 15 surplus votes in its kitty.
It remains to be seen if the Congress will field a second candidate in the poll, considering that it will 14 more votes to ensure the victory of its second candidate.
In the event of the Congress not fielding the second candidate, Uddhav Thackeray and eight other candidates in the fray will get elected unopposed to the Council. If the Congress forces an election by fielding a second candidate, then the poll will produce an interesting result - though the election will have bearing on Uddhav whose election has become a foregone conclusion.