Chinks surface in NCP

NASHIK, AUG 2: Two former ministers of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in the state who joined the Nationalist Congress Party NCP...

NASHIK, AUG 2: Two former ministers of the Shiv Sena-BJP alliance government in the state who joined the Nationalist Congress Party NCP recently, are facing opposition from the new party8217;s rank and file in their respective constituencies in Nashik district.

Former Minister of State for energy Tukaram Dighole and former minister for tribal development Arjun Pawar are being projected by their adversaries in the NCP as opportunists interested only in power politics. In Sinnar, the constituency of Dighole, his bete noire and Nashik Zilla Parishad member Manikrao Kokate, addressed a meeting of the NCP on Sunday, raising a flag of revolt. Kokate, a former leader of the local Youth Congress, vowed to finish off the opportunistic politics of Dighole.

At the well-attended meeting of his supporters, Kokate declared that he would contest as a rebel candidate from the Sinnar assembly constituency,if the NCP nominated Dighole. He also lambasted Dighole for his selfish political moves in the past. Dighole,incidentally, has represented Sinnar in the State assembly for three successive terms first on a Congress S ticket, then on a Congress I ticket and in the 1995 polls as a rebel, when the Congress denied him a ticket. Dighole is an old associate of Sharad Pawar and after he got elected in 1995 as an independent, he became an associate member of the Shiv Sena and was inducted into the state cabinet as a minister of state. It is presumed by party workers that Dighole would be nominated by the NCP for the Sinnar assembly seat.

Kokate also pointed out in his speech that when Sharad Pawar formed the NCP, he was the first Congress leader from Sinnar to have joined the party.

On the other hand, Arjun Pawar, who was the tribal development minister in the Manohar Joshi cabinet and was subsequently dropped, is facing opposition from the local unit of the NCP in his Kalwan constituency. Pawar had been elected to the assembly in 1995 on a BJP ticket. The president of the Kalwan taluka unit of the NCP Dr J D Pawerhas raised a flag of revolt against Arjun Pawar, accusing the latter as an opportunist lusting for power.