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Journalism of Courage
As the dust settles after the nominations for the Maharashtra Assembly elections closed on Tuesday, both the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition find themselves facing a host of rebels who have the potential to damage the electoral prospects of their candidates. Both alliances said they would try to get these rebels to stand down before November 4, the last date for withdrawing nominations.
Of at least 50 candidates who have rebelled, a major chunk, 36, are from the Mahayuti while the rest are from the Opposition camp. Most of the rebels are from the BJP at 19, followed by 16 from the Shiv Sena led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and one from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) of Deputy CM Ajit Pawar. In the MVA, most rebels are from the Congress at 10, followed by the Shiv Sena (UBT) of Uddhav Thackeray and the Nationalist Congress Party (SP) of Sharad Pawar. The 14 MVA rebels are in addition to the candidates from the alliance partners who have filed nominations in the constituencies of Kurla, South Solapur, Paranda, Sangola, and Pandharpur. In some cases, the rebels have also got their family members to file nominations.
At a meeting in Delhi last week, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told Shinde and Deputy CMs Ajit Pawar and Devendra Fadnavis to control internal rebellions and infighting. After the nomination window closed, Fadnavis said efforts were underway to get the rebels to withdraw their candidature. “We are a big party and we have many leaders who aspired to contest. But in coalition, we have certain limits and we can not accommodate everyone. But we will speak to them (rebels) and convince them. We are sure that they will understand and withdraw their nominations,” Fadnavis said, adding that there could be friendly fights in some constituencies.
Nine rebels from Shinde’s party are contesting in constituencies where the BJP has fielded candidates: in seats such as Airoli in Navi Mumbai, Mumbai’s Andheri East (where former encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma’s wife and daughter have filed nominations), Pachora in Jalgaon district, and Belapur in Thane district.
Ten BJP rebels going up against the Sena in seats allotted to them, including Alibaug and Karjat in Raigad district, Buldhana in the district of the same name, Borivali in Mumbai Suburban district, and Jalna in the district of the same name. BJP rebels are up against the NCP in nine seats while Shiv Sena rebels are contesting in seven seats allotted to Ajit Pawar’s party. The lone NCP rebel has filed his papers from Nandgaon in Nashik district against the Sena candidate.
In the MVA, the Congress has four rebels each going up against the alliance’s official candidates in seats such as Kopri Pachpakhadi in Thane district, where Eknath Shinde is the Mahayuti candidate; Byculla in Mumbai; and Ramtek in Nagpur district. The Sena (UBT) has rebels in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar in Mumbai Suburban, where the SP state chief Abu Azmi is the candidate; Versaova in Mumbai Suburban district, and Mehkar in Buldhana district. The party’s rebel in Dharavi, Mumbai, where city Congress chief Varsha Gaikwad’s sister Jyoti is the candidate, withdrew one of his nominations and saw the other one rejected.
In the rest of the seats, some have NCP (SP) rebels filing their candidature against official MVA nominees from either the Sena (UBT) or the Congress, while the rest has the NCP (SP) facing rebels from its other allies or from within its own ranks.
MVA leaders met on Thursday afternoon to sort out their problems. “On Thursday afternoon a meeting between the MVA leaders has been called to ensure that all friendly fights are called off and differences, if any, are settled. We will not allow any friendly fights and the leaders of Sena UBT and NCP (SP) are on the same page with us. Similar efforts are on to convince the rebels to withdraw their candidature,” All India Congress Committee’s (AICC) Maharashtra in-charge Ramesh Chennithala said earlier.
Mahayuti- 36 rebels
Shiv Sena against BJP: 9 (Constituencies: Airoli, Andheri East (2 rebels), Pechora, Belapur, Phulambri, Kalyan East, Vikramgad, Solapur City)
BJP against Shiv Sena: 10 (Mehkar, Buldhana, Sawantwadi, Jalna, Paithan, Ghansawangi, Alibag, Karjat, Borivali, Mira Bhayandar)
Shiv Sena against NCP: 7 (Pathrit, Beed, Wai, Anushaktinagar, Deolali, Dindori and Khed Alandi)
BJP against NCP: 9 (Aheri, Amalner, Amravati, Pathri, Shahpur, Junnar, Udgir, Kalwan, Alandi)
NCP against Shiv Sena: 1 (Nandgaon)
MVA – 14 rebels
Congress against Sena (UBT): 4 (Constituencies: Kopri Panchpakhadi, Ramtek, Byculla, Rajapur)
Sena UBT against Congress: 4 (Versova, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, Mehkar, and Dharavi)
The rest: 6 (Jintur, Parola-Arandol, Srigonda, Beed, Parli. Kasba)
