Mumbai, June 01: Chief minister Ashok Chavan likes to play on a safe wicket, but not his detractors.
Chavan’s strategy to field only three candidates for the council polls was shot down by revenue minister Narayan Rane and Union industries minister Vilasrao Deshmukh who convinced the central leadership to allow a fourth candidate as the party has surplus votes. Candidates across the parties filed nominations for the council polls on Monday at Vidhan Bhawan.
On Monday, however, instead of an official fourth candidate, two independent Congress candidates —Vijay Sawant and Kanhaiyalal Gidwani — both close to Rane and Deshmukh, filed their nominations, unsettling Chavan who did not want to risk the defeat of the official candidates — Hussain Dalwai, Dipti Chaudhury and Sanjay Dutt. Their candidature has taken the number of contestants to 12 for the 10 seats, thereby setting the set stage for intense tussle between the Congress, NCP, BJP and the Shiv Sena.
The independents, with a strength of 16, and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) 13 members will now become crucial in deciding the result of the council polls. The Congress decision to let loose a fourth and a fifth candidate under the independent banner is a ploy to make elections difficult for the Sena and NCP, both struggling to get their numbers right.
Being the single largest party with 82 members, the Congress can pull off a win for all three official candidates without much effort, as each candidate requires 27 votes to qualify. However, with 62 members, its alliance partner, the NCP, will fall short of 19 votes to ensure victory for its third candidate. NCP candidates who filed nominations for the council polls are former state minister Ramraje Nimbalkar, Vinayak Mete and Prakash Bhinsale.
According to a NCP general secretary, “The presence of two independents makes the battle difficult for the NCP. We have to go the extra mile to guard our turf by winning some votes from smaller parties not affiliated with the Congress and Sena-BJP.”
The Congress top leadership has distanced itself from the NCP, arguing, “They have never consulted, nor sought our help in the council elections.” A senior official said, “We enjoy the support of the 16 independents, but they (the NCP) have never approached us for help. Despite being short of votes, they have fielded three candidates instead of two.”
—Agencies