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Pune: A serious tug-of-war within the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is casting its long shadow in the fight for the Pune Graduate constituency in the upcoming Maharashtra Legislative Council polls.
Although it is a contest between the ruling MVA and the opposition BJP, the battle is replete with inter-and intra-party bickering and to add spice to the whole soap opera is the spectre of defection from both the camps.
While Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced the nomination of sugar baron Arun Lad, the BJP named Sangram Deshmukh.
Interestingly, the Sangli-based Lad, who is the president of the Kranti Co-operative Sugar Factory and was responsible for the NCP’s defeat in the last Pune Graduate constituency election when he raised the banner of rebellion.
Adding spice to the boiling broth is the incumbent MLC of the Pune Graduate constituency seat, Dattatray Sawant. He reportedly met with NCP chief Sharad Pawar in Baramati and stated that he had sought the NCP chief’s blessings to file his nomination for the hotly contested seat.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s problems have been compounded after Sadabhau Khot- led Rayat Kranti Sanghatana, a BJP ally fielded its own candidate as the deadline for filing nominations ended on November 12 making it a triangular contest.
Khot, an estranged former associate of farmer leader and Swabhimani Paksha chief Raju Shetti, is unhappy with the state BJP leadership and has put forward his own candidate, Kolhapur-based educationist N.D. Chougule, who filed his nomination today.
Just days before the deadline to file the nomination papers, the deep divisions within the tripartite MVA emerged. Eyebrows were raised as the Shiv Sena short-listed four aspirants for the seat. However, no candidate filed his nomination, thus letting the NCP, which considers itself the traditional contestant in this seat, to step in the poll arena.
The fiercely contested Pune Graduate constituency seat is up for grabs as it was till late October 2019 held BJP state president Chandrakant Patil. In the 2019 Assembly elections he was elected to the lower house from the Kothrud constituency in Pune city.
