BJP drops all four sitting Maha MPs in 2nd candidates’ list

MUMBAI: The BJP dropped four sitting MPs from Maharashtra as it announced nominees for six seats in the state as part of its second list for the Lok Sabha elections released on Saturday. BJP. Two of the seats did not have BJP MPs.
The four MPs denied a ticket were Anil Shirole (Pune), Sanjay Bansode (Solapur), AT Nana Patil (Jalgaon) and Harishchandra Chavan (Dindori). Shirole has been replaced with Pune guardian minister Girish Bapat, Bansode with Lingayat spiritual leader Jai Siddheshwar Shivacharya, Patil with Smita Wagh, an MLC, and Chavan with Bharati Pawar, who joined BJP on Friday.
The other two nominees announced were Pratap Patil Chikkalikar from Nanded —Congress on Saturday fielded state party chief Ashok Chavan from Nanded—and Kanchan Kul from Baramati to take on NCP’s Supriya Sule.
The BJP has also decided not to offer any LS seats to its four smaller allies. At a meeting with leaders of these parties—RSP, RPI(A), Shiv Sangram and Rayat Kranti Sanghatana—CM Devendra Fadnavis informed them of the decision and promised them their “due” at the time of assembly polls.
One leader of an ally, who attended the meeting, said, “We have demanded we should be given first choice of seats for the assembly elections.” In 2014, Jankar and Rayat Kranti Sanghatana leader Sadabhau Khot had contested LS polls from Baramati and Madha respectively and lost.
This time’s pick for Baramati, Kanchan Kul, is Rashtriya Samaj Paksha MLA Rahul Kul’s wife. Sources said Kanchan’s nomination for the seat, an NCP stronghold, comes as a surprise, and she has got a BJP ticket without RSP) leader Mahadev Jankar being consulted. Rahul Kul had won the Daund assembly seat by defeating the NCP candidate with BJP’s support. Source said Rahul Kul has close ties with Fadnavis. BJP’s ‘Mission Baramati’ started during the 2014 LS elections when it supported the candidature of RSP chief Mahadev Jankar, who had put up a tough fight against Sule. BJP leaders had then claimed Sule could have been defeated in 2014 had Jankar fought on BJP’s symbol.
Out of 25 seats BJP is contesting in Maharashtra in alliance with the Shiv Sena, it has so far announced nominees for 22. The party is yet to announce nominations for Mumbai North East, Madha and Bhandara-Gondia.
In the first list, BJP had dropped two of its sitting MPs—Sunil Gaikwad (Latur) and Dilip Gandhi (Ahmednagar). On Saturday, it opted for a senior minister in the state cabinet for the Pune LS seat when it nominated Girish Bapat, five-time MLA from Kasba assembly constituency. The BJP’s central election committee picked Bapat over sitting MP Anil Shirole who had won the seat in 2014 with a margin of over 3.15 lakh votes. Denying there were differences with Shirole, Bapat said he had a telephonic conversation with the MP a few hours after his candidature was announced. Later in the afternoon, Shirole met Bapat at the party office and congratulated him.
Shirole said he has accepted the party’s decision and will join Bapat’s campaign. “In two decades, the party has given me opportunities at various levels. I have put in 100% effort during my tenures as corporator in PMC, party’s city unit chief and MP. I am happy I was able to push crucial infrastructural works in the city in the past five years. I will continue my contribution towards executing these works. There is no question of joining any other party,” he said.
A senior leader said Bapat’s involvement in the 2014 assembly polls and 2017 civic polls, along with his connect with party corporators and workers, worked in his favour. Shirole, on the other hand, made few public appearances, he added. Bapat, who has served three terms as corporator in the PMC, is contesting the LS polls for the second time after 1996, when he was defeated by Congress leader Suresh Kalmadi.
An interesting triangular fight is on the cards in Solapur, with BJP’s Siddheshwar Shivacharya pitted against Congress leader and former Union minister Sushilkumar Shinde. Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi’s Prakash Ambedkar too is set to throw his hat in the ring by filing his nomination from Solapur on Monday. The BJP has ditched Bansode, who had comfortably defeated Shinde on his home turf in 2014. Siddheshwar Shivacharya, who has followers outside the Lingayat community as well, runs a mutt at Gaudgaon village in Akkalkot taluka of Solapur district. In three assembly segments of Solapur LS constituency – Akkalkot, South Solapur and Solapur North – Lingayat voters could be decisive. The spiritual leader has cordial relations with RSS and the BJP leadership and had publicly opposed minority status for the Lingayat community.
The BJP has brought in two new women faces, BJP MLC Smita Wagh from Jalgaon and Bharti Pawar from Dindori, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates, by denying renomination to MPs A T Nana Patil (Jalgaon) and Harishchandra Chavan (Dindori) respectively.