Two Cong, BJP rebels withdraw

PUNE, Aug 26: The Congress rebel candidate from the Haveli Assembly constituency Babasaheb Tapkir has withdrawn from the fray, making it ...

PUNE, Aug 26: The Congress rebel candidate from the Haveli Assembly constituency Babasaheb Tapkir has withdrawn from the fray, making it a three cornered contest between the Nationalist Congress Party, Shiv Sena and the Congress.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership in Maval also heaved a sigh of relief when Vishwanath Bhegde, who had filed his nominations declaring himself a rebel against the party’s official candidature Digambar Bhegde, withdrew from the contest.

Bhegde had filed his nominations as the BJP nominee as well as an independent candidate in Maval Assembly constituency. His nomination as the party’s candidate was found invalid during the scrutiny on Wednesday as he had not submitted the B form. However, he still continued to remain in the fray as his other nomination as an independent candidate was found valid. Bhegde today withdrew his nomination as independent candidate.

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Three others who had filed their nominations as independent candidates for a Lok Sabha and two State Assembly seats also withdrew their nominations on Thursday.

Prominent among them were Shiv Sena worker Rajendra Ramchandra Wagaskar who had filed his nominations for Bhavani Peth Assembly constituency and Sopanrao Laxmanrao Gondhale who had filed his nominations for the Pune Lok Sabha polls.

With this development, the number of candidates remaining in the fray for the three Lok Sabha and 18 State Assembly seats in the district has gone down to 199.

A total of 227 nominations were received for the elections of Lok Sabha and State Assembly constituencies in the district. Twenty four nominations were found invalid during the scrutiny and former home minister Bapusaheb Thite had withdrawn his nomination as an independent candidate for the Baramati Parliamentary constituency on Wednesday.

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NCP leaders Sharad Pawar, Vitthal Tupe and Ashok Mohol; Pradeep Rawat and Pratibha Lokhande of BJP; Kisan Bankhele of Shiv Sena; Mohan Joshi, Ramkrishna More and Ram Kandge of Congress, former bureaucrat Avinash Dharmadhikari and underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli are the main candidates for the Lok Sabha seats of Pune, Baramati and Khed.

The major candidates in the elections for the State Assembly seats in the district are Minister of State for Agriculture Harshavardhan Patil who is an independent candidate from Indapur constituency, Sharad Pawar’s nephew Ajit who is fighting in Baramati constituency and Gawli’s wife Asha who has her eyes set on the Junnar and Khed-Alandi seats.