Foxed by Gholap, Sena sends team to Nashik

MUMBAI/NASHIK, AUG 26: The Shiv Sena today launched damage control measures to sort out the tricky issue of dealing with controversial fo...

MUMBAI/NASHIK, AUG 26: The Shiv Sena today launched damage control measures to sort out the tricky issue of dealing with controversial former Social Welfare Minister, Baban Gholap, who has put the party in a bind after the nomination of Ravikiran Gholap, his nephew and Sena’s officials candidate from Devalali, was rejected yesterday. Interestingly, Baban Gholap remains in the fray as an Independent.

A four member fact finding team reached Nashik today to find out why the original authorisation letter was not submitted by Ravikiran. The guardian minister for Nashik, Bala Nandgaonkar, and deputy leader of Sena in charge of the district, Arvind Sawant, MLC, were also huddled in a meeting at Igatpuri for the better part of the day. Sena leader Raj Thackeray, who was on an election tour in Dhule, cancelled his meetings in the Nandgaon constituency and Satpur and reached Nashik late last night and met local Sena leaders, including Gholap and deputy leader Arvind Sawant.

The Sena is a no-win situation inDevalali after the nomination papers of Ravikiran were rejected yesterday since he had filed photocopies of the all important authorisation letter.

Despite denials from Gholap, party leaders feel that he plotted the ouster of Ravikiran from the fray. “This is evident from the fact that without the permission of the party, he filed his nomination papers both as a nominee of the Shiv Sena and also as an Independent candidate,” one Sena leader remarked.

Though sources within the Sena said that Bal Thackeray is likely to expel him, the final decision will be taken after the receipt of the report from the inquiry committee. “In a day or two, we will have to take a decision on whether to support Baban or otherwise. In the event the party expels him, we will have to decide on a candidate whom we will support. On the other hand, if we pardon him, we will have to support him as an independent candidate despite the fact that he has played a trick to ensure that the nomination papers of the official candidateare rejected,” the Sena leader explained.

On the procedure adopted by the party for distribution of authorisation letters, the Sena leader said once the decision on candidates is taken, it is the responsibility of the designated party leaders in Mumbai to ensure that authorisation letters are delivered to the concerned person. “We had made the arrangement to distribute the authorisation letters at Sena Bhavan on the day the names of official candidates were declared. In case of Nashik, it was the responsibility of Sena legislator Arvind Sawant to ensure that necessary papers are delivered to the concerned person,” he said.“We will have to see if Ravikiran’s authorisation letter was collected by him or someone else on his behalf." According to one version, the delivery of the A and B forms of eight candidates from Nashik was entrusted to Anil Pagare who did not deliver the Devlali papers. Pagare is a sainik and was the personal assistant of Gholap when the latter was the Social Welfare Minister. Gholaphad sacked Pagare on Sept 1, 1998, when the former was accused of swindling money from the corporations under the social welfare ministry. Another version puts the blame on deputy leader Arvind Sawant who reportedly took the papers meant for Devlali from Pagare in Mumbai, stating that he would be visiting Nashik and delivering it personally.