The Congress candidate for Antagarh bypoll, Manturam Pawar, shocked his senior party leaders on Friday by abruptly withdrawing his nomination just a day before the last date for withdrawing nomination to contest polls.
The Congress had been betting aggressively on Pawar to win the bypoll to send a signal to the ruling BJP in Chhattisgarh that the party is fighting back its lost ground with even more vigour now.
A shocked State Congress president Bhupesh Baghel expelled Pawar from the party immediately in Raipur. “Irrespective of any ‘factionalism’ in the party, we had fielded Pawar with the consent of local party workers. It is a murder of democracy. The incident is the outcome of BJP’s ploy to win the by-poll,” claimed Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) Media Cell in-charge, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi in a statement here.
Pawar’s wife, Savita had filed her nomination as the ‘dummy candidate’ but after the Electoral Officer found no fault in his nomination form, the latter’s nomination form was rejected as per rules. Technically, the Congress party now has no candidate to contest the by-poll on its symbol in Antagarh.
However, it was learnt that the senior Congress leaders were now contemplating to offer the party’s support to BJP rebel Raghunath Kumethi, who filed his nomination as an Independent candidate after the ruling party turned down his claims and instead provided the ticket to Bhojraj Nag to contest the by-poll.
“The last date for withdrawing the nomination is August 30. We will wait till Saturday evening to get a clear picture and then will decide whether to extend our support to any candidate remaining in the contest or not” said leader of Opposition TS Singh Deo.