Upholding the political tradition in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday withdrew its candidate for the crucial November 3 by-election to Andheri (East) Assembly seat in Mumbai, hours before the deadline for withdrawal of nominations ended.
The party’s candidate, Murji Patel, was pitted against Rutuja Latke, the candidate for the Uddhav faction of the Shiv Sena.
The byelection was necessitated by the death of Ms. Latke’s husband and Shiv Sena legislator Ramesh Latke in May.
The party’s State unit chief, Chandrashekhar Bawankule, on Monday, said they have decided not to contest the bypoll and Murji Patel has withdrawn his candidature. “Otherwise, we could have won the election,” he said.
Despite BJP withdrawing its candidate, the bypoll will take place as per schedule as seven more candidates are still in the fray after the closure of withdrawal of nominations on Monday.
“Out of the valid nomination papers of 14 candidates for the Andheri (East) by-election, the candidature of seven has been withdrawn,” Mumbai suburban District Collector and District Election Officer Nidhi Choudhary said while appealing to citizens to vote in large numbers on November 3.
The candidate who remains in contest include, Rutuja Ramesh Latke (Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasahed Thackeray), Milind Kashinath Kamble (Independent), Neena Ganpat Khedekar (Independent), Sandesh Sadanand Jadhav (Peoples Party of India (Democratic)), Rajesh Ramdular Tripathi (Uttar Bhartiya Vikas Sena), Farhana Siraj Sayed (All India Mahila Empowerment Party) and Bala Venkatesh Vinayak Nadar (Aapki Apni Party (People)
Monday was the last day for withdrawal of nominations for the bypoll, which was necessitated due to the sudden death of Shiv Sena’s sitting legislator Ramesh Latke in Dubai in May this year.
It was seen as the first electoral battle after Eknath Shinde toppled the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi, a collision of Shiv Sena, Congress, and Nationalist Congress Party, and became the Chief Minister in June.
The bypoll has raised much heat in the State, particularly after the split of Shiv Sena with tempers running on both sides claiming legitimacy for the true heritage of Sena founder late Bal Thackeray.
“The BJP had previously also not contested some of the bypolls. If a legislator has passed away and one of his family members is contesting, it is a tradition in Maharashtra to elect the person unopposed,” Mr. Bawankule said in Nagpur, adding that the decision was taken by the Central and State leadership and thanked Chief Minister Shinde, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and Mumbai unit president Ashish Shelar.
This announcement came a day after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief and Uddhav’s estranged cousin Raj Thackeray, and NCP chief Sharad Pawar appealed to Mr. Fadnavis to drop their candidate and elect Ramesh Latke’s widow Rutuja Latke unopposed in the by-election as a mark of respect to the departed soul.
Mr. Fadnavis said though their party has a stronghold with a fair chance of winning, they pulled out heeding the appeals of Mr. Raj Thackeray, Mr. Pawar and others from other political spectrums.
Reacting to the BJP's announcement, Ms. Latke said she was indebted to everyone who worked to make this election an uncontested battle and thanked Mr. Raj Thackeray, Mr. Pawar, and other leaders who appealed to the saffron party to withdraw its nomination.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said the BJP, with whom his faction of Shiv Sena shares power, tried to maintain Maharashtra’s political tradition of not contesting a bypoll, if kin of a deceased legislator enter the fray by withdrawing from the Andheri (East) bypoll.
“They (BJP) tried to maintain the tradition and withdrew from the race,” he said.
With Mr. Patel pulling out, Ms. Latke’s victory in the November 3 byelection is a mere formality and would meet Sena chief Mr. Uddhav Thackeray for the next course of action.
Soon after the announcement, MNS chief Raj Thackeray thanked senior Mr. Fadnavis for the BJP’s decision to withdraw its candidate from the bypoll. “I am thankful that you responded. It is essential to have a positive political culture,” he said.
However, leaders in the Uddhav camp said the late decision would not recompense the mental harassment the State government inflicted on Ms. Latke and the BJP has withdrawn its candidate even before contesting as they knew that they would lose the election.
“They (BJP) pulled out its candidate as they knew that they would lose against UddhavThackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate, RutujaLatke,” Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said.
Mr. Raut, who is currently lodged at Arthur Road Jail in connection with a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate against him, was speaking to reporters on the premises of the city civil and sessions court, where appeared for a bail plea filed by him.
He said that BJP had conducted a survey which predicted that their candidate would lose by at least 45,000 votes. “This is the reason they decided to withdraw,” he said, adding that MNS chief’s letter to Mr. Fadnavis was ‘all scripted’.
Meanwhile, NCP state president Jayant Patil said that the Eknath Shinde-BJP government may have realised that they would face a humiliating defeat against Latke. “We appreciate that better sense prevailed finally,” he added.
On October 12, Ms. Latke, an employee of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), approached the Bombay High Court, as the civic authority was not accepting her resignation. The next day court directed the BMC to issue a letter of acceptance to Ms. Latke, paving her way to file the nomination papers for the bypoll.
