Grumble in BJP-Sena camp as several ticket hopefuls left out of first list of candidates

A huge protest broke out at Ausa in Latur district over allotment of the BJP ticket to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar. The strongest opposition to Pawar’s nomination came from state Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar’s brother Arvind Patil, who was seeking the ticket.

bjp-shiv sena seat sharing, pm narendra modi, amit shah, uddhav thackeray, maharashtra polls, indian express

The BJP is also facing a rebellion in Nashik, where party corporator and standing committee member Dinkar Patil is planning to fight as an independent. (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar)

Left out of the first list of candidates for the Assembly elections, announced by the ruling BJP and Shiv Sena on Tuesday, several party leaders have openly expressed his displeasure.

A huge protest broke out at Ausa in Latur district over allotment of the BJP ticket to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ personal assistant Abhimanyu Pawar. The strongest opposition to Pawar’s nomination came from state Labour Minister Sambhaji Patil Nilangekar’s brother Arvind Patil, who was seeking the ticket. Patil’s supporters held up traffic on the state highway shouting slogans that a “bhoomiputra” (son of the soil) should get the ticket, and not the CM’s PA.

“These are the sentiments of the people, I will convey their feelings to higher-ups in the party,” the Minister said.

Story continues below this ad

The BJP also had to face a problem in Kalyan (North), where party’s sitting MP Narendra Pawar was dropped as a part of its seat-sharing deal with Shiv Sena. Many of Pawar’s supporters, including six corporators and several office bearers, resigned in protest. Threatening to raise a banner of revolt, Pawar said that he would contest the election as an independent candidate if a favourable decision was not taken soon.

The BJP is also facing a rebellion in Nashik, where party corporator and standing committee member Dinkar Patil is planning to fight as an independent.

In Navi Mumbai, too, the ruling party had to face some anxious moments as local strongmen Ganesh Naik was “miffed” after his name was not included in the first list of candidates. Naik, who joined the BJP last month, met with both Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray for a redressal. He is now expected to contest from Airoli, where his son Sandeep was given a ticket by the BJP, party officials claimed.

“Due to some internal issue, it was possible for us to get only one seat, Airoli. It was the wish of our workers and mine too to see Naik sir on the seat. I think he has more experience and has earned the respect of people. I am going to gladly support him in all activities,” Sandeep said.

Story continues below this ad

On Tuesday, a scuffle broke out between the supporters of former MLA Pravin Darekar, who is now with the BJP, and sitting Sena MLA Prakash Surve.

Darekar had been hoping to contest the election from Magathane constituency. The seat, however, went to the Sena in the seat-sharing arrangement.

After initial protest, Darekar decided to extend his support to Surve, but BJP supporters staged a protest outside his office.

BJP workers also clashed with their Sena counterparts after a cartoon, allegedly released by the Sena, went viral on social media. The cartoon showed a man kicking a politician, with an accompanying dialogue: “get out of my constituency”, purportedly hinting at throwing Darekar out of the constituency.

Story continues below this ad

Darekar justified the unhappiness of his supporters, saying, “They (supporters) are bound to be unhappy, but I explained to them that this is the decision taken by the senior leaders for the alliance.”

Darekar, along with BJP MP from Mumbai North Gopal Shetty, later accompanied Surve to file his nomination papers on Tuesday.