Congress plays cards close to chest over Baramati seat

PUNE, AUG 23: The Congress is keeping its political cards secret to take on its opponent Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Baramati...

PUNE, AUG 23: The Congress is keeping its political cards secret to take on its opponent Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the Baramati Assembly segment. The Congress candidate, who will be pitted against Ajit Pawar of the NCP, will be known only tomorrow, the final day of filing of the nomination.

Party district president Devidas Bhansali today announced the list of candidates for the various Assembly segments in Pune district, but said that the Congress candidates for Baramati, as well as Mulshi will be declared tomorrow.

Bhansali neither denied nor confirmed whether the Baramati seat was being allotted to the Republican Party of India, saying that he had not received any information from the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. The party has nominated Pimpri-Chinchwad unit president Hanumant Balasaheb Gawde as the candidate for the prestigious Haveli Assembly seat which falls in the Baramati Lok Sabha constituency. It is the NCP here which is has kept the name its nominee secret. The NCP had 18 aspirants who are vying for the candidature, of which former MLA Dnyaneshwar Landge and former mayor Azam Pansare were in contention. Even after the unanimous choice of the party workers as well as Landge himself supporting Pansare, the NCP had not announced its candidature.

The other candidates of the Congress for the various Assmebly segments are: Purandar: Chandrakant Nivrutti Jagtap; Daund: Premsukh Kisandas Kataria; Shirur: Baburao Kashinath Pacharne; Indapur: Kisanrao Narute; Khed: Shantaram Vishnu Gargote; Ambegaon: Shreerang Gabhale; Junnar: Sopan Namdev Sherkar; and Maval: Chandrakant Appa Satkar.