Settles on candidature of former CM Narayan Rane
Mumbai: With the Congress finally deciding to contest only one seat and leave two for the NCP, the election of 10 members to the state Legislative Council is likely to be unopposed.
Congress has decided to field former chief minister and senior leader Narayan Rane for the upper house seat. Official announcement is just a formality now, said a senior party leader.
The party’s strategy is to send senior leaders to the upper house to firmly counter the government, similar to that in the Rajya Sabha where the party has nominated former ministers Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal and P Chidambaram and other stalwarts. “That is how Rane’s name must have been finalised,” the leader said.
Earlier in the day, after a meeting with party president Sharad Pawar, NCP’s state unit president Sunil Tatkare had said that the Congress has agreed to their proposal of reelecting both their leaders – Council Chairman Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar and Leader of Opposition in the upper house Dhananjay Munde – to the upper house.
“It is a matter of just a formality now. The Congress leadership is expected to announce their candidate by evening. If they announce only one candidate, it automatically means that they would support our two candidates,” Tatkare said.
The Shiv Sena that has enough strength to send two members to the upper house has fielded industries minister Subhash Desai and transport minister Diwakar Raote. With the Congress and NCP deciding to field three candidates, the remaining five seats would now go to the BJP.
The BJP is just nine votes short for the fifth candidate. But, with no other candidate in the fray and Shiv Sena, Vasai Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and a few other smaller parties, they are confident of getting the fifth candidate elected.
The BJP has decided to give two seats to allies, one to ShivSangram leader Vinayak Mete and the other to Swabhimani Shatkari Sanghatana’s state president Sadabhau Khot. Khot is also likely to get ministerial berth in the cabinet expansion expected sometime soon.
RPI leader Ramdas Athawale is likely to get a place in the Union cabinet and hence will not be given a seat in upper house, the BJP leader said.
State BJP secretary Surajsingh Thakur and Mumbai corporator Manoj Kotak’s candidature is considered to be final, according to party insiders.
The leadership is yet undecided about former organising secretary Raghunath Kulkarni and chief spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, party sources said. The decision is expected to be made in a couple of days.
