Jolt for NCP: Karad pulls out of Beed MLC polls at 11th hour

MUMBAI: In a major setback to the Sharad Pawar-led NCP, particularly leader of opposition Dhananjay Munde, Ramesh Karad withdrew his nomination papers from the election for the Osmanabad-Latur-Beed local self-government seat in the state legislative council on Monday—the last day for withdrawal of documents. This means there will be no NCP candidate in the fray from this Marathwada region.
Karad, who hails from Latur, had unsuccessfully contested the assembly elections twice from Latur (rural) constituency as a BJP nominee.A trusted aide of the late Gopinath Munde, Karad quit the BJP after being denied nomination for the legislative council polls and joined the NCP last week. Ignoring the claims of local NCP leaders, Dhananjay Munde played a key role for securing Karad nomination for the MLC polls. Then it was considered a jolt to BJP leader and rural development minister Pankaja Munde.
Even as the NCP camp was confident of Karad’s victory, Pankaja succeeded in pursuing him to withdraw from the race and also quit the NCP. “It was Pankaja Munde’s masterstroke. She has taught her cousin, Dhananjay Munde, a lesson,” said a senior BJP leader.
Karad, accompanied by BJP MLC from Osmababad Surjeet Singh Thakur went to the returning officer around 2.30pm, just half an hour before the deadline for withdrawal of nominations, and quit the race. NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik confirmed that Karad withdrew his nomination paper at the last minute. “We are shocked by his decision. Now, Congress and NCP have extended support to Independent candidate Ashok Jagdale,” he said.
The BJP has nominated erstwhile NCP leader Suresh Dhas, once a trusted aide of former deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar, for the Osmanabad-Beed legislative council election. The seat was earlier held for three terms by Dilip Deshmukh, younger brother of former chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Elections for the six seats from the local self-government constituencies are scheduled on May 21 and the counting on May 24.