BJP drops four sitting Maharashtra MPs, Girish Bapat replaces Anil Shirole in Pune

PUNE: Girish Bapat, the guardian minister for Pune district and a senior minister in the state cabinet, has wrestled past other contenders in the party to secure the BJP ticket for the Pune Lok Sabha seat.
The BJP’s central election committee picked Bapat, 68, over sitting MP Anil Shirole, who had won the seat in 2014 election with a historic margin of over 3.15 lakh votes.Bapat’s name was announced by the party in the early hours of Saturday.
The BJP also announced the candidature of Kanchan Kul from Baramati. She is the wife of Rahul Kul, the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha MLA from Daund. The Shiv Sena has already announced the candidatures of Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil from Shirur and Shrirang Barne from Maval. With this, the saffron alliance has announced its candidates in all the four constituencies in the Pune district.
Other candidates announced by the BJP are Jaysidhesvar Swami from Solapur, Bharti Pawar from Dindori, Smita Uday Wagh from Jalgaon and Pratap Patil Chikhalikar from Nanded.
The party dropped four sitting MPs, including Shirole, as it announced nominees for six seats in the state as part of its second list for the Lok Sabha elections. The other three MPs denied tickets are Sanjay Bansode (Solapur), AT Nana Patil (Jalgaon) and Harishchandra Chavan (Dindori). Bansode has been replaced with Jaysidhesvar Swami, Patil with Wagh, an MLC, and Chavan with Pawar, who joined the BJP on Friday.
Bapat, a five-time MLA from the Kasba Peth Assembly constituency, had lost the Lok Sabha ticket in 2014 to Shirole.
Denying that there were differences with Shirole, Bapat said he had a telephonic conversation with the sitting MP a few hours after his candidature was announced. Later in the afternoon, Shirole too met Bapat at the party office and congratulated him.
Shirole said he had accepted the party’s decision and would join Bapat’s poll campaign. “In the past two decades, the party has given me opportunities at various levels. I have put in 100% effort during my tenures as the corporator in PMC, party’s city unit chief and MP. I am happy that I was able to push ahead crucial infrastructural works in the city in the past five years. I shall continue with my contribution towards executing these works. There is no question of joining any other party,” he said.
A senior leader said Bapat’s active involvement in the 2014 Assembly polls and 2017 civic polls, along with his connect with the party corporators and workers, worked in his favour. Shirole, on the other hand, made very few public appearances and failed to network well during his tenure, he added.
Besides Bapat and Shirole, BJP associate MP Sanjay Kakade and former standing committee chairman Muralidhar Mohol were also among the contenders for the Pune Lok Sabha seat.
On Saturday, Bapat said he was thankful to the party leadership for his selection. Confident of his electoral win, he pledged to make all efforts to ensure the city’s development during his tenure in Parliament. So far, he is the only minister from the current state cabinet to have got a Lok Sabha ticket from the BJP.
Bapat claimed that he did not make any demands to the party top brass in Mumbai and Delhi for his candidature. The party gave the ticket on the criteria of elective merit and capability, he added.
Sources in Bapat’s camp said his “serious efforts” to secure candidature started two months ago. Recently, Bapat had released a report card of his work in the form of a book in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union minister Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur. Later, in Pune, he held a series of meetings with prominent citizens to discuss the report card. Of the eight BJP MLAs in the city, Bapat is the senior most.
Elated by Bapat’s candidature, his supporters gathered at the BJP’s office on the Jangli Maharaj Road on Saturday afternoon. “A strong base of workers is the BJP’s asset. This strength will power the party’s win. The Shiv Sena and other alliance members are also with us. Together, we will ensure an emphatic win in Pune,” Bapat said after a brief meeting with the party workers. The meeting was also attended by the Shiv Sena leaders.
Bapat, who has served three terms as a corporator in the PMC, is contesting the Lok Sabha polls for the second time after 1996, when he was defeated by Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi.
Sources in the party also said that in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, leaders in the city unit were split into two camps. Bapat, who is said to belong to Gadkari’s camp, had missed the bus and Shirole, who was closer to former minister Gopinath Munde, was chosen. This time, Bapat secured the ticket, almost 23 years after his previous battle for a Lok Sabha seat.