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This is an archive article published on January 29, 2023

Local BJP unit throws its weight behind Congress ‘rebel’ Satyajeet Tambe as five MLC seats go to polls today

Though the decision to support Tambe has been not made official by state BJP leadership, the local leaders have decided to rally around him.

The polling for five MLC seats, including the much-talked about Nashik seat, is scheduled to take place on Monday.

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AFTER keeping up the suspense for days on declaring open support to Satyajeet Tambe, who is contesting from Nashik graduate constituency, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday seems to be throwing its weight behind the former Youth Congress chief, who, during a protest a few years ago, had blackened Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poster. It was this “poster-act” that was turning out to be deterrant for the BJP in openly supporting him, insiders said.

The polling for five MLC seats, including the much-talked about Nashik seat, is scheduled to take place on Monday.

Though the decision to support Tambe has been not made official by state BJP leadership, the local leaders have decided to rally around him.

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This comes a day after Satyajeet Tambe insisted he was a Congress loyalist, adding he would “clarify everything at the right juncture.”

BJP leader Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who hails from Ahmednagar district, said local party workers have taken the decision to support Tambe. “All our party workers have decided to vote for Satyajeet Tambe. He is a young leader and he should be given an opportunity…We have started appealing to our party workers to vote for Tambe,” Vikhe-Patil told reporters.

On Saturday, his son and BJP MP Sujay Vikhe-Patil had also spoken on similar lines. “We will stand by the candidate from our district. This is the general sentiment of our party workers which we have conveyed to our state leadership..The party has also given us direction to take decision at the local level. And this is a golden opportunity for the district to get a local candidate elected and we will make most of it,” he said.

Satyajeet Tambe, a former Maharashtra Youth Congress president, had filed his nominations after his father Sudhir Tambe withdrew from the race at the last minute. The Congress had given ticket to Sudhir Tambe but he withdrew apparently in favour of his son which came as a major embarrassment for the party.

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After filing his nomination as independent candidate, Satyajeet Tambe had said that he will seek support of all parties, including the BJP and the Balasahebanchi Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) has decided not to support Satyajeet Tambe, who is known for his proximity to Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Instead, the MVA has decided to back Shubhangi Patil, another independent candidate in the fray after she approached the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray). Patil had first approached the BJP which had denied her the nomination. BJP, for its part, did not nominate anyone.

On Sunday, Patil said, “MVA has reposed faith in me and I will never betray MVA and Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray.”

For days, the BJP had been saying that if Satyajeet Tambe seeks support, they will place his request before the Parliamentary board which will take the decision. However, even as Satyajeet Tambe made the request, the BJP kept mum over the issue all the while.

BJP’s issue with supporting the 41-year-old stems from an episode from 2018, when Satyajeet Tambe, as Youth Congress chief, had smeared black paint on a poster of PM Modi during a protest over rising inflation. Even on Saturday, BJP workers and leaders protested against Satyajeet Tambe in Nandurbar, urging the party not to support Tambe as he had targetted the country’s Prime Minister.

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Interestingly, Satyajeet Tambe has not resigned from the Congress and continues to put on a brave front despite the obvious rebellion. He has also refused to speak about the 2018 protest. Along with his father Sudhir Tambe, he has been suspended from the party for a period of six years.

On Saturday, Tambe spoke about his long association with the Congress. “I have urged party office-bearers not to resign. We are party loyalists. We have worked with the Congress for years. Politics will continue to be played on politial field. When the appropriate time comes, I will speak about it in detail.”

Tambe added, “I had demanded nomination from the Congress. However, I did not get party’s AB form in time because of which I filed my nomination as an independent candidate…Currently, half-truths are being spread about me…I will clarify everything at the right juncture.”

Tambe is the nephew of senior Congress leader Balasaheb Thorat who has refused to speak on the issue. Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) chief Nana Patole, however, has minced no words in attacking the father-son duo. “They have betrayed the party. If Satyajeet Tambe wanted to contest, he should have told us. We would have nominated him. But playing this kind of games with the party shows that they wanted to deceive the party,” Patole has said.

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When asked about BJP’s support to Tambe, State Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “He (Tambe) is an independent candidate. It is not our concern who is supporting him.”

Besides Nashik, polling will also be held for elected Members of Legislative Council (MLCs) from Amravati, Aurangabad, Konkan and Nagpur constituencies on Monday.

Manoj Dattatrye More

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades. Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died. Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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