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Journalism of Courage
PUNE, Aug 12: The caste factor has once again emerged crucial for political parties who have been weighing pros and cons of fielding a candidate belonging to a particular caste to gain an edge over rivals in the six assembly segments falling under the Pune Lok Sabha seat.
While the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have scored over other parties by already announcing three candidates each, the Congress is still undecided about their six candidates and the BJP about their two candidates.
Significantly, all the candidates, so far declared by the Sena and the NCP are from dominant Maratha community. The Sena has fielded Vinayak Nimhan (Shivajinagar), Suryakant Lonkar (Pune Cantonment) and Deepak Paigude (Bhavani Peth) while the NCP has nominated Rambhau Moze (Bopodi), Anna Thorat (Kasba Peth) and Ankush Kakade (Shivajinagar).
While the factor does not weigh so heavy for the Sena which will be fighting only three assembly seats in the city, the NCP leadership is still struggling over the candidature for the remaining three assembly segments. The NCP, sources said, is desperately looking for a candidate from Mali community for Pune Cantonment segment to take on Balasaheb shivarkar of the Congress who also belongs to the same community. While the NCP leadership is confident of getting Maratha votes, they are trying to attract dominant Mali community by fielding a Mali candidate. This, they believe, would place NCP in comfortable position.
Similarly, the party is also trying to field a Muslim candidate from Bhavani Peth. The NCP, sources said, party has decided to field at least one Muslim candidate in Western Maharashtra and Bhavani Peth considering that the latter assembly segment is dominated by Muslim voters. The party leadership is said to be vying with an idea to give up Parvati seat in favour of RPI faction led by Ramdas Athawale, considering the possibility of Congress surrendering Bopodi constituency in favour of the rival RPI faction led by R S Gawai.
The Congress is certain to field two Maratha nominees (Kasba Peth and Shivajinagar) and a Mali candidate (Pune Cantonment), while it is yet to decide upon strong candidates for the remaining three segments. Suresh Kalmadi, the sources said, has been pressing for a Muslim candidate in Bhavani Peth and has suggested that party should surrender Parvati segment instead of Bopodi to RPI. In both the constituencies – Parvati and Bopodi, Neo-Buddhists and Matang play crucial role in deciding the election outcome.
The BJP leadership, of late, has also realised the dire need to field at least one of the three constituencies a candidate belonging to Maratha community. The party has left with no option but to nominate Maratha candidate from Bopodi since Girish Bapat will be fighting from Kasba Peth while Parvati is a reserved constituency. Vijay Kale and Anil Shirole, who have been asked by the party to contest from Bopodi, are said to be reluctant.
Over to Sonia
The final decision on deciding Congress candidate in Pune constituency has been left to party president Sonia Gandhi. Congress sources said the State parliamentary board, which is currently camping in New Delhi, failed arrive at a conclusion because of sharp differences.
Senior Congress leader V N Gadgil has been pressing for his son Anant while Suresh Kalamdi has been insisting the name of Mohan Joshi. A section of the leaders have supported the candidature of former mayor Vandana Chavan. The sources said party is expected to take final decision sometime in the next week.
