Fissures follow Cong list for Lok Sabha

MUMBAI, AUG 16: The much-delayed first list of Lok Sabha candidates declared on Sunday has already sparked off tensions and created fissu...

MUMBAI, AUG 16: The much-delayed first list of Lok Sabha candidates declared on Sunday has already sparked off tensions and created fissures within the Congress in the State. Two former chief ministers – S B Chavan and A R Antulay – are out to notch up individual gains; at stake is the vital Aurangabad seat and related Assembly seats in Marathwada.

Antulay’s nomination for Aurangabad surprised many since his home base is the Konkan region, more specifically Kulaba seat in Raigad district. Party leaders say that his choice for Aurangabad was a unanimous one at the AICC screening committee in New Delhi but it is learnt that Chavan had expressed his displeasure at the nomination. Chavan would want to retain his command and influence over Marathwada region to the extent possible.

Incidentally, Chavan and Antulay were bitterly opposed to Sharad Pawar when he was with the Congress. They fought him and his group from the same side of the battle-line in the last few years and often blamed him for marginalisingtheir influence across the State though they developed their own network in New Delhi. Of late, both were seen as spent forces within the party and Pawar’s expulsion three months ago was seen as a major boost for them to re-establish their command over the party structure or within their region.

Importantly, Antulay’s influence in the Konkan belt has been on the wane in the last few years and is believed to have helped the rise of the Shiv Sena there. He won from the 1996 General Election from Kulaba with a considerably small margin of about 5000 votes. He fought the 1998 election but lost – almost to nobody’s surprise. Subsequently, many of his loyalists switched over to Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaving Antulay with an emaciated party-base.

“Considering the background in Kulaba, it would have been difficult to field him and expect the Congress to win,” said a senior leader. Besides, Aurangabad electorate has a substantial Muslim population – around 1.5 lakh that the Congress hopes totap with Antulay’s candidature. The constituency has turned into a Sena-BJP stronghold in recent years and the alliance has fielded incumbent cabinet minister Chandrakant Khaire while the NCP has given a ticket to Baburao Pawar who had sought nomination last year from the Congress. He is believed to have a good network with his former party, the Congress.

However, more than his opponents, Antulay would want to be careful of internal competition. With Chavan fighting hard to get his son and two sons-in-law nominated for the Assembly election from the region and viewing Antulay as the “outsider” likely to wreck the Congress-Muslim relationship in Marathwada as he did in Konkan, it’s likely that Antulay will get less than complete support and cooperation from the party unit. For the moment, Antulay seems confident of overcoming obstacles but then the electorate is hardly a predictable one.