Dharmadhikari opts out of fray, joins BJP

Friday was a satisfying day for the BJP when Dharmadhikari announced he was pulling out of the contests to the LS seat and Shivajinagar Assembly seat. His entry into the BJP follows the announcement by Anna Joshi to campaign for the party nominee. Anna was denied the ticket at the last minute with the party opting forRawat. Dharmadhikari told reporters his decision followed a telephonic conversation with senior party leader L K Advani on Friday morning. Advani apparently said he was all for the issues being raised by Dharmadhikari, one of them being the cleansing of the political system.

“Advani said solutions to these issues could be found after discussing them independently. Advani also requested me to join the BJP and withdraw from the race. Since I could not turn down a request from such a senior leader, I decided to join the BJP and fight for the issues from the party platform,” Dharmadhikari said.

Reacting to the development, Pradeep Rawat said he would not like to see it in terms of an electoral gain because Dharmadhikari’s entry was bound to strengthen the party’s ideological stand on several issues. Dharmadhikari shot into the limelight when he quit the Indian Administrative Service to work for a clean public life. At the time of the last Lok Sabha elections, he had sought a BJP ticket. On being deniedthat, he had contested as an Independent. More recently, he had taken an active part in the people’s movement to return former municipal commissioner Arun Bhatia to the City.

Friday also brought some cheer to the Congress after local party leaders succeeded in persuading rebel candidates to withdraw. City unit president Mohan Joshi, who is also the party LS candidate, Mayor Datta Gaikwad, corporator Abhay Chhajed and other party leaders called on disgruntled leaders. Suresh Kalmadi too had telephonic conversations with most rebels.

Congress corporator Rajjak Khan pulled out of the race for the LS and Bhavani Peth Assembly seats after the talks. Anis Sundke, who too had his eyes on Bhavani Peth, too withdrew from the fray. Former deputy mayors Nandu Moze (Bopodi) and Hiraman Shinde (Parvati) were the others who were brought around to the party’s point of view.

But the leaders failed to convince two corporators, Sadanand Shetty and Ramakant Andekar. Both announced they would contest the Bhavani Pethseat.There was, however, a setback for the Congress when senior leader and former minister Prakash Dhere joined the NCP.

Dhere, who called the shots in City politics some years ago, was upset when the Congress let Bhavani Peth go to the RPI kitty under the seat-sharing agreement.