The final list of the nominees for the legislative council election has come as a shock to many under the Congress fold as the party denied its ticket to Sachin Sawant, who had almost fought a lone battle against the Fadnavis government. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) nominated Amol Mitkari, who had played a key role in the party’s campaign during the assembly election.
The denial of a ticket to Sawant became a talking point in the political circle after NCP rewarded Mitkari. Shiv Sena Member of the Parliament Sanjay Raut expressed shock over the denial of a ticket to Sawant. “We were expecting that Congress would nominate a studied and aggressive leader like Sachin Sawant,” Shiv Sena said in an editorial in its mouthpiece Saamna. Even within the Congress, it was expected that Sawant would be rewarded for fighting a lone battle on its behalf. “This is disappointing,” admitted a Congress leader. “It is the reason why NCP is growing in the state and Congress is reeling at number four,” he added.
Sachin Sawant, who comes from a modest background, is known for his hard work, good presentation and studied exposure of opponents. He started working as the spokesperson of the Congress party. His performance during the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena rule from 2014 to 2019 was very impressive. After Congress was reduced to number four in the state, all its leaders went into hibernation. As most of the leaders have some or the other scams or issues on which the ruling Fadnavis government could easily blackmail them, they chose not to challenge the government.
Sawant, as a spokesperson, did not keep himself limited to only reactions. But he started exposing the Fadnavis government using RTI and his sources. He exposed various scams and irregularities of the previous government. His exposure of the Fadnavis government’s excise waiver to Jindal group to the tune of Rs 500 crore forced the BJP-led government to cancel this order.
Despite not being a member of any house, he forced the Fadnavis government to modify the loan waiver scheme many times by exposing the government regularly on this issue. He also exposed scams and irregularities in Metro and Chhatrapati Shivaji memorial.
His participation in TV debates and his studied arguments many times pushed the generally aggressive BJP on a defensive mode. He was in high demand for the campaign during the assembly elections across the state.
After the Congress became the ruling party, his caustic tweets and reactions created a new headache for the BJP. Recently, his tweet about the suggestion given to the governor to take a call on Uddhav Thackerayt’s nomination by removing the black cap was very popular. When BJP got aggressive about the travel permission given by the government to the Wadhwan family, his expose about Wadhwan’s company donating crores of money to BJP punctured their aggression. In the Palghar case too, he pushed BJP on a backfoot by exposing that the grampanchayat where the mob lynching took place was ruled by it.
