Friction in State unit after BJP drops big names from final list

6 ministers out; 18 tickets to children of incumbent; 40 star campaigners for rallies

October 05, 2019 03:38 am | Updated 03:39 am IST - Mumbai

Show of strength:  CM Devendra Fadnavis at a rally before filing nomination from Nagpur South West on Friday.

Show of strength: CM Devendra Fadnavis at a rally before filing nomination from Nagpur South West on Friday.

The cracks within the Maharashtra unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to the fore on Friday after the party announced the final list of candidates for the Assembly elections on October 21.

The party dropped half a dozen ministers resulting in discontent among the supporters of the shunted. While the party has ignored the old guard, it seems to have given ample opportunity to the dynasts with over 18 tickets to sons and daughters of the incumbent.

The fourth and final list took the BJP tally to 150 as opposed to the Shiv Sena’s 124. The Cabinet ministers who have missed out on a ticket are Vinod Tawde, Prakash Mehta, Eknath Khadse, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Vishnu Savara and Dilip Kamble. The party also dropped its chief whip Raj Purohit.

The last list of seven has names of Eknath Khadse’s daughter Rohini, Charan Singh Thakur from Katol, Pradeep Padole from Tumsar, Rahul Dhikale from Nashik East, Sunil Rane from Borivali, Parag Shah from Ghatkopar East, and Rahul Narvekar from Colaba.

Soon after the announcement, the car of local candidate Parag Shah who replaced sitting MLA and controversial Housing Minister Prakash Mehta at Ghatkopar was damaged. Anger simmered in the constituency of former minister Vinod Tawde and Muktainagar, the constituency of Eknath Khadse.

The supporters of Mr. Khadse and Mr. Mehta demanded that the two fight the elections as independents. Mr. Mehta appealed to his supporters for calm. “I will talk to each one of you separately to understand your anger,” he told them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Tawde said he will continue to work for the party and seek an explanation from the high command after the elections. “This is not the right time to analyse why I am not given a ticket and if the decision is performance-based. I will meet party leadership after the elections and seek answers to all the questions. I have no charge of corruption pending against me and will continue to work for the party. My values are based on the Sangh ideology and keeping that in mind I will continue the social work I have been doing for the last few years,” he said.

The BJP also announced the first electoral rally by BJP president Amit Shah at Beed in October 8. It declared a list of 40 star campaigners, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Shah, J.P. Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Devendra Fadnavis, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Yogi Adityanath, Piyush Goyal, and Smriti Irani, in Maharashtra. Meanwhile, several senior leaders, including Mr. Fadnavis and Radhakrishan Vikhe-Patil, filed their nominations on Friday.

“With the blessings of people of Maharashtra and my constituency, and with love and support of lakhs of our karyakartas, today I filed my nomination from Nagpur South West constituency for the Assembly polls,” Mr. Fadnavis said after filing papers at Nagpur.

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