In a surprise move, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday changed one of its four candidates for the May 21 biennial polls to the Maharashtra Legislative Council. The decision comes after it became clear on Monday that the election to the nine seats will be unopposed.
The BJP has asked Dr. Ajit Gopchade to withdraw his nomination to make way for Ramesh Karad as the party’s candidate. Mr. Karad had filed his nomination as a dummy candidate on Monday, in the presence of Leader of Opposition in the Council Pravin Darekar.
Dr. Gopchade, who is from Nanded, heads the BJP’s State medical cell and was announced as a candidate along with three others on May 8. He had filed his nomination papers the same day along with the other three: Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil. A Lingayat from Nanded, his candidature was seen as the BJP’s appreciation of cadre from the community.
Mr. Karad and Sandip Lele had filed nominations from the BJP as dummy candidates. Mr. Karad, a loyalist of the late BJP leader Gopinath Munde, had joined the Nationalist Congress Party to contest Council polls in 2018, but switched back to the BJP within five days.
According to party sources, the change in candidates is aimed at pacifying the Vanjari community, to which Mr. Karad and Munde belong, especially after Munde’s daughter and former minister Pankaja Munde was denied a nomination for the Council polls.
