Bhujbal opts out of Nashik battle but seat still a bone of contention
Bhujbal declared on Friday that he was withdrawing from the Nashik constituency race in order to resolve the prolonged deadlock within the ruling alliance
MUMBAI: State minister and senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal declared on Friday that he was withdrawing from the Nashik constituency race in order to resolve the prolonged deadlock within the ruling alliance. Although he added that he would continue to campaign for Mahayuti candidates wherever he was asked to go, the minister is said to be upset at the delay in announcing his name as a candidate.
Bhujbal’s announcement has put the Ajit Pawar-led NCP in a fix, as he was the party’s most likely candidate. His opting out also means that the NCP could lose the Nashik seat to the Shiv Sena, and, if this happens, the party will end up contesting only four of 48 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra.
The seat-sharing tug-of-war between the ruling parties has been going on for over a month now. The Satara seat was in the NCP quota but the party conceded it to the BJP to field Udayanraje Bhosale, a direct descendent of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The NCP had sought Nashik, from where it had decided to field Bhujbal. However, Nashik falls in the Shiv Sena quota, and CM Eknath Shinde was unwilling to let go of it because the sitting MP from there, Hemant Godse, was one of those who defected with him when he split the Shiv Sena in 2022.
Bhujbal came into the picture after union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah suggested his name. “I did not ask for candidature from Nashik,” the senior NCP leader claimed. “My name was suggested by Amit Shah during a meeting held in Delhi on March 24. This was conveyed to me in person by the NCP leadership in a party meeting on March 25, after which I started preparing for the polls. A week later, when my name was not announced, I checked with deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis and state BJP president Chandrashekhar Bawankule, and both of them confirmed my nomination.”
Expressing his ire, the veteran OBC leader said that three weeks had passed and the Mahayuti leadership had yet to resolve the Nashik seat issue. “Meanwhile, the MVA candidate has been campaigning for three weeks,” he pointed out. “Any further delay will create problems for the Mahayuti in the Nashik election. But I believe an immediate decision is expected.”
While Bhujbal emphasised that his withdrawal did not mean that the NCP would not contest from Nashik, sitting Shiv Sena MP Hemant Godse said that the issue had been resolved and the seat would go to the Shiv Sena. “Nashik is primarily a Sena seat but Amit Shah was insisting on Bhujbal’s name, which had become a bone of contention,” he told reporters. “With Bhujbal’s withdrawal, the issue has been resolved and I am sure the seat will come to us.”
If the NCP does not get Nashik, the party will end up contesting only four seats in the Lok Sabha polls as against the 12 seats that it was seeking as an alliance partner. The NCP had to concede its fifth seat, Parbhani, to the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP), from where the party’s chief Mahadev Jankar, a popular Dhangar leader, will contest.
Maharashtra NCP president Sunil Tatkare said he was not aware why Bhujbal had chosen to withdraw his name. “I am busy campaigning in my constituency in Raigad,” he said. “I don’t know what transpired between the top NCP leaders and why he took the decision.”
Of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP has announced candidates in 26, the Shiv Sena in nine and the NCP in four. One seat has been given to the RSP.
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