A Savarkar in poll fray, BJP frowns

But BJP’s sitting MLA from Kasbapeth, Girish Bapat, seems unperturbed. Referring to the 1999 Assembly elections, Bapat said that then too, the Hindu Mahasabha had fielded a candidate but had failed to upset his applecart. ‘‘The Mahasabha candidate, Sandeep Kulkarni, had polled 181 votes,’’ said Bapat.

Although Bapat discounts a few more hundred votes to Savarkar, due to the legacy factor, he does not believe she would dent his votebank: ‘‘My victory margin was over 20,000 votes. A thousand votes polled by Himani Savarkar does not disturb my prospects in any way’’.

Incidentally, Bapat denies that Savarkar’s candidature would split the pro-Hindu votes and give an edge to Anna Thorat (NCP). Citing the voteshare in 1999, Bapat said he had bagged 7,000 votes more than the combined votes polled by Sanjay Balgude of Congress and Thorat.

But Thorat, re-nominated from Kasbapeth, begs to differ. ‘‘The BJP should not undermine the Mahasabha candidate. She has got the necessary name, a strong ideology and a fresh face,’’ he said. While Thorat believes its the BJP which stands to lose from Savarkar’s nomination, he said he would never rub the BJP the wrong way on the Savarkar issue.