Sources reveal BJP’s Prasad Lad could be in ‘danger zone’
Say stormy intra-Congress wrangling led to former minister Chandrakant Handore’s candidature
@vivekbhavsar
Mumbai:With all major parties herding their legislators in Mumbai’s top five-star hotels, the high-stakes biennial election for 10 seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council (MLC) slated for Monday (June 20) promises to be a humdinger of an electoral contest.
Eleven candidates are in the fray for the 10 MLC seats, with the three ruling MVA parties – Shiv Sena, the NCP and the Congress – each fielding two candidates while the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is fielding five candidates. The victory quota is around 26 votes as the strength of the 288-member Legislature has now reduced to 285, following the demise of Sena MLA Ramesh Latke and the arrest of two NCP leaders Nawab Malik and Anil Deshmukh.
It is the BJP’s gambit of propping the fifth candidate in the form of Prasad Lad, a blue-eyed boy of the party’s Assembly Leader of Opposition (LoP) Devendra Fadnavis, that has made the contest particularly interesting.
In the recently concluded Rajya Sabha polls, the BJP led by Fadnavis had rattled the tripartite MVA by achieving a surprise victory on the hotly-contested sixth Rajya Sabha seat in the State which saw the BJP’s Dhananjay Mahadik narrowly beating the Sena’s (MVA’s) candidate Sanjay Pawar by 41 votes to 39.
With a number of independent MLAs, who were expected to side with the MVA ultimately voting for the BJP, bitter recriminations ensued after the results on June 11 which were finally declared after a high-voltage, all-night drama.
Sanjay Raut ‘named’ no less than six independent MLAs as being responsible for the defeat of the Sena’s candidate, while accusing the BJP at the Centre and the State of ‘misusing Central agencies’ to change the outcome of the results.
While voting in the Rajya Sabha polls followed an open ballot system (except for independent MLAs), the MLC polls are held by a secret ballot system.
This has got the three MVA parties into a tizzy, with the Sena, the NCP and the Congress struggling to keep their flock together and trying to shield their MLAs from the blandishments – financial or otherwise – of the opposition BJP.
Furthermore, Raut’s remarks against independents has sparked strong resentment among the MLAs, giving rise to fears of their queering the pitch for the MVA in favour of the BJP.
According to a Congress insider, the first meeting to propose and select the party candidate was held in Delhi. H K Patil, a state in charge of the Congress had called the meeting after a directive from the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The meeting was attended by Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) President Nana Patole, Leader of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) Balasaheb Thorat, former MPCC president Ashok Chavan, Minister Dr Nitin Raut and Minister Amit Deshmukh were present.
Sources in the Congress in New Delhi claimed that Ashok Chavan had lobbied for Basavraj Patil and Bhai Jagtap, sitting MLC and president of the Mumbai Regional Congress Committee (MRCC) in that meeting. Sachin Sawant, former party spokesperson, and Ashok Chavan camp follower had also applied for the candidature to the party high command.
As both the names recommended by Chavan were from the Maratha community, Nana Patole strongly opposed them and requested that candidates from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or Scheduled Castes (SC) be considered.
Balasaheb Thorat, meanwhile, pushed the name of his protégé – Pune Congressman Mohan Joshi – while trying to convince Patil that Joshi was the only leader who capably steered the party in Pune after Suresh Kalmadi’s drift into political oblivion.
Joshi’s candidature, too, was opposed by Patole who expressed dissatisfaction over his performance. Patole instead recommended a list of 10 candidates to H K Patil and requested to select anyone from that list.
While mediating in the stormy discussions within Maharashtra Congress leaders, H K Patil finally said that he has received as many a 30 names, of which Chandrakant Handore’s was one.
While Patil insisted that Handore should get the candidature, a source claimed that Handore’s name was not in any list. Apparently, Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha had recommended Handore’s name and directed Patil to ensure that the Dalit leader get an opportunity.
More drama followed after that as once Handore’s name was recommended by Patil, Nana Patole recommended another backward community leader Devram Pawar, who is from the Banjara community and hails from Vidarbha.
His logic being as there are seven Maratha leaders in the state cabinet already, an OBC or SC candidate should get an opportunity.
However, Pawar’s name was strongly opposed by all, so was another Patole recommendation – that of Sanjay Lakhe Patil, another loyalist of the MPCC chief who also hails from the Vidarbha region.
At a second meeting in Mumbai, when all protagonists were present, four names were finally settled on for final approval after much wrangling and lobbying – Sachin Sawant, Sanjay Lakhe Patil, Chandrakant Handore and Naseem Khan.
Of these, two were finalised by Rahul Gandhi – that of Handore and Bhai Jagtap.
Who will be the winner? Bhai or Lad?
The Shiv Sena currently has 55 MLAs, while the NCP’s voting strength is down to 51, given that Deshmukh and Malik are behind bars, and the Congress has 44 legislators.
Going by the victory quota of 26 votes, the remaining 18 ‘second preferential’ votes will go to Bhai Jagtap. While that leaves a shortfall of eight votes, a source claimed that Bhai has managed to fulfil his quota.
Given that Jagtap is Ashok Chavan’s choice, the contest has turned into an intra-party issue.
A source wryly quipped that Chavan will use ‘Vitamin M’ (money power) even more than the BJP to see his candidate elected.
On the Opposition BJP’s end, it appears that their fifth candidate Prasad Lad is in a ‘danger zone.’
A source claimed that Lad tried to poach NCP members and that former BJP Minister-turned-NCP leader Eknath Khadse was on the saffron party’s ‘target’.
This led NCP President Sharad Pawar to direct Praful Patel to personally ensure Khadse’s victory. Pawar also reportedly warned Lad that the NCP would ‘take action’ against the BJP leader if he tried to snare NCP’s MLAs to vote for him.
If sources are to be believed, it appears that Lad may not make good his required quota as the NCP will hold its flock together.
