Ganesh Kendale
MUMBAI: BJP made its preference for the old guard clear on Sunday as it named 71 sitting MLAs in its first list of 99 candidates for the Maharashtra assembly polls. Some found themselves on the list despite their losses in this year’s LS polls. In all, 13 women, including four debutants, were given tickets.
BJP is part of Mahayuti bloc, which is yet to announce its seat-sharing pact.
Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis was nominated for the sixth time. Rajya Sabha MP Ashok Chavan’s daughter Srijaya was nominated from the family’s traditional seat Bhokar in Nanded district.
‘BJP is not confident of going into Maharashtra poll with new faces’
Political observers said the decision to repeat sitting MLAs, unlike in Haryana where the party replaced many sitting MLAs, clearly indicated that BJP was not confident of going into elections with new faces. “It also indicates that RSS and its various organisations are actively involved in the decision-making process,” said an observer requesting anonymity.
State BJP chief Chandrashekhar Bawankule, who belongs to the Teli community, has been given a ticket from home constituency Kamthi in Vidarbha. In 2019, he was denied a ticket to contest the poll, resulting in huge resentment within the community. In the recent polls, the defeat of Ramdas Tadas from Wardha had also upset the community, said sources.
Chandrakant Patil, who was nominated from Kothrud in 2019, causing huge resentment among BJP workers in Pune, was renominated from the same seat.
Cabinet minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who contested the LS polls and lost, has been picked for Ballarpur constituency in Chandrapur district, where he is the sitting MLA. Similarly, Mihir Kotecha, who lost from Mumbai North-East in the LS polls, has been given the ticket from Mulund, where he is the sitting MLA.
Ganpat Gaikwad, MLA from Kalyan East, who is in jail for firing at Shiv Sena functionary Mahesh Gaikwad, was replaced by his wife Sulabha Gaikwad, while Babanrao Pachpute was replaced by his wife Pratibha Pachpute for the Srigonda assembly seat.
The renomination of Patil, as well as Madhuri Misal from Parvati in Pune, came as a huge surprise. Former corporator from Pune Srinath Bimale was keen to contest from Parvati, while former corporator Ujwal Keskar was trying hard for Kothrud.
In Mumbai where it has 16 MLAs, the party announced 14 candidates, including ex-corporator Vinod Shelar, brother of BJP Mumbai unit chief Ashish Shelar, who will contest from Malad West in place of Ramesh Singh Thakur, who lost to Congress’s Aslam Shaikh in 2019. BJP has not announced candidates for Borivli, Versova and Ghatkopar East it won in 2019. “It means there are questions being raised about the sitting MLAs Sunil Rane, Bharati Lavekar and Parag Shah. In fact, during Navratri, there were only former MLA Prakash Mehta’s banners all across Ghatkopar East,” said a party source.
Ashish Shelar said his brother has been a corporator and worker for the party for the last 30 years and is originally from RSS. In Navi Mumbai, the party retained Manda Mhatre from Belapur, refusing to concede to senior politician Ganesh Naik’s demand to nominate his son, Sanjeev, from the seat. Ganesh was nominated from Airoli assembly seat.
