Maharashtra Council polls: 4-way fight for Mumbai’s seat

Deepak Sawant

Contesting the Legislative Council elections, the Shiv Sena (UBT), Congress and NCP (SP) reached an agreement for sharing seats on the last day for withdrawing nominations. On the rival side though, the NDA chose a friendly fight for one place. The BJP and NCP (Ajit Pawar) have kept their stakes in the Mumbai teachers' segment, along with Sena (UBT) and Shikshan Bharati which has a sitting MLC. Suspense over Mumbai's graduates' seat for which Shinde Sena and BJP had fielded their candidates prevailed till the last minutes.

MVA leaders during a press conference. File Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Meanwhile, Shinde Sena nominee Deepak Sawant's status was not known immediately. Sources said Dr Sawant and the RPI candidate had withdrawn from the race. Sawant went incommunicado after 3 pm. BJP's Kiran Shelar will take on Sena (UBT)'s seasoned leader, Anil Parab. Observers said that Sawant's candidature would have helped BJP by way of division of votes.

MVA sorted

A day before, the state Congress President Nana Patole had resented Uddhav Thackeray's decision to field all four candidates in Mumbai, Konkan and Nashik. Thackeray told a media conference on Wednesday that he had received a call from the Congress's Delhi high command. About Patole's claim that he had contacted him earlier, the Sena (UBT) president said that there was a communication gap. "I was abroad for some days. The nominations had started. So instead of waiting, we filed nominations. We reached an agreement on Wednesday," he said.

According to the deal, Thackeray's candidate in Konkan graduates' constituency Kishor Jain and NCP's Amit Saraiyya withdrew for Congress' Ramesh Keer, who will be up against BJP's Niranjan Davkhare. Congress's Dilip Patil pulled out from Nashik graduates' and Prakash Sonavane withdrew from the Mumbai teachers' segment. Voting is on June 26 and the results will be out on July 1.

NDA's partial agreement

Shinde Sena withdrew Sanjay More from Konkan graduates' seat, thus paving the way for BJP's Davkhare, who is a sitting MLC from here. In return, BJP's aspirant Dhanraj Vispute withdrew from Nashik. Another candidate, Rajendra Vikhe Patil stayed out from Nashik. However, in Mumbai teachers, the voters have a choice between four candidates - BJP's Shivnath Darade, Sena (UBT)'s J M Abhyankar, NCP (AP)'s Shivajirao Nalawade and Shikshak Bharti's Subhash More. Sitting MLC Kapil Patil (Shikshak Bharti) did not contest this time.

Family or others?

NCP (AP) kept the excitement alive over its Rajya Sabha candidature. The nomination will close today, but the party hasn't declared the name for one seat for which the voting is scheduled on June 25. According to the grapevine, Ajit Pawar's family members including his wife Sunetra Pawar who lost the Lok Sabha elections recently, and some senior leaders were in contention. According to state party president Sunil Tatkare, the candidate will be announced today morning.