Anticipating the rejection of nomination papers filed by Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction’s Rutuja Latke for the Andheri (East) Assembly by-election, the party’s Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) councillor Sandeep Raju Naik too have filed election papers to meet any eventuality.
With this, the total number of nominations filed for the forthcoming elections has reached 25, which includes two sets by Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Murji Patel and eight independent candidates.
“We are afraid of any mischief played by the other group (Eknath Shinde-BJP) as they are now running the government. So, we didn’t want to take any chance and fielded two candidates from our party to face any eventuality,” Pramod Sawant, a Uddhav faction leader, said.
He alleged that when the ruling party can create a ruckus and pressurise BMC Commissioner not to accept Ms. Latke’s resignation, a class III employee in the corporation, they can also pressurise the poll body to reject her nomination on various grounds.
Following the directions of the Bombay High Court, the civic body accepted Ms. Latke’s resignation, paving the way for her to file her nomination.
Though the major fight is going to be between Eknath Shinde-BJP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena, the presence of nominations filed by small and sundry parties and independent candidates is viewed as a deliberate attempt to confuse the voters.
Uddhav camp spokesperson and Lok Sabha MP Arvind Sawant said that it has been customary in Maharashtra to elect the kin of a deceased legislator unopposed in the by-elections as a mark of respect, and the move by the Shinde group and the BJP to contest bypoll itself was not a good tradition.
“Already, the nasty political turnout which took place in the past few months didn’t go down well with the people of Mumbai and Maharashtra and, now the rival party contesting the election is viewed in a bad light. There is no doubt that Ms. Latke will win the election with a thumping majority,” he said.
The conspicuous absence of Eknath Shinde candidate in the bypoll had taken the air out of sail despite creating a lot of ruckus by approaching the Election Commission of India over the party name and symbol
“They approached the EC stating that they would contest the bypoll, and used their position to freeze the party name and symbol – bow and arrow. But, the group has not fielded its candidate and is supporting the BJP’s Murji Patel, which itself proves that they are a group of liars,” the MP said.
The demographic structure of the constituency is such that out of the over 2.80 lakh registered voters, every third person is a native Marathi-speaking individual. This is seen as an advantage for the Uddhav Thackery group, which rides on the popularity of Marathi Manoos.
While about 15% of the electorate in the constituency are said to be Gujaratis and Marwaris, which acts as a support base for BJP’s Murji Patel.
The late Ramesh Latke of Shiv Sena, husband of Rutuja Latke, who contested three elections, lost the 2009 Assembly polls to Congress party’s Suresh Shetty and won the 2014 and 2019 elections. The bypoll was necessitated following the sudden death of Ramesh Latke in May this year.
In the 2019 Assembly election, Murji Patel lost to the late Latke by a margin of 16,965 votes. He contested as an independent as Andheri (East) was given to the Shiv Sena in seat-sharing by the then Sena-BJP alliance.
Once Ms. Latke nomination papers found in order, and was made eligible to contest, Mr. Naik will withdraw his nomination. October 17 is the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers
Public holiday
Meanwhile, the State government on Saturday declared a public holiday for the Andheri (East) Assembly constituency on the day of the bypoll to be held on November 3.
An official release stated that the holiday will be applicable to Central and state government offices, semi-government offices, public enterprises, banks and others.
“It will also apply to voters who work outside the limits of the Assembly constituency,” it further read.
