BJP, Sena stick to ‘sitting, getting’ norm

Nagpur: The Bharatiya Janata Party as well as its ally Shiv Sena have stuck to the ‘setting, getting’ norm while finalizing the nominations for the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Vidarbha. With the Bhandara-Gondia constituency remaining on hold, the BJP has announced names for its five seats while the Sena has also renominated its sitting MPs in four seats. Both the parties have avoided any surprise changes.
City MP and union minister Nitin Gadkari, union minister of state for Home Hansraj Ahir from Chandrapur, Ashok Nete from Gadchiroli, Sanjay Dhotre from Akola and Ramdas Tadas from Wardha figured prominently in the first list of candidates released on Holi evening at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.

The Shiv Sena released its list on Friday in which all four names of Vidarbha — Krupal Tumane from Ramtek, Bhavna Gawali from Yavatmal-Washim, Anandrao Adsul in Amravati and Prataprao Jadhav from Buldhana are included as party nominees getting another chance from their respective constituencies.

With all major political parties playing the waiting game, there is already a delay in declaring candidates. The Congress, though the first to set the process in motion, is now the last in completing it as it is yet to come out with nominees for Chandrapur, Ramtek and Akola.

The Congress has announced nominations of Nana Patole from Nagpur, Charulata Tokas from Wardha, Manikrao Thakre from Yavatmal-Washim and Namdeo Usendi from Gadchiroli. In the three seats NCP is contesting in the region only that of Rajendra Shingane from Buldhana has been announced. The NCP is undecided on Bhandara-Gondia and is likely to support Navneet Kaur (Independent) in Amravati seat.

In Bhandara-Gondia, BJP has to find a strong candidate as 2014 winner Nana Patole left the party to join the Congress. The seat is in NCP quota and traditionally contested by NCP stalwart Praful Patel. But this time Patel is reluctant as he has half the term remaining in Rajya Sabha leaving the party in a quandary.

The BJP is waiting for NCP to announce and then field a strong candidate to win the seat back from NCP whose Madhukar Kukde won the by-elections last year defeating BJP’s Hemant Patle.

There were serious doubts on whether BJP would give Ramdas Tadas another chance from Wardha. Sagar Meghe, son of ex-MP Datta Meghe who contested on Congress ticket and was defeated by Tadas last time, was seen in the race for a BJP ticket but lost out to Tadas whose Teli roots were seen as a plus point in caste calculations.