I was Rahul’s choice for Ramtek, says Nitin Raut

Nagpur: Infighting and turbulence within the Congress party came to fore once again on the last day for filing of nomination papers for Ramtek parliamentary constituency. Former minister and AICC chairman of Scheduled Castes department Nitin Raut claimed his name was given final approval as candidate by party president Rahul Gandhi just couple of hours before the deadline. But mandatory A-B form signifying party’s endorsement were not made available to him denying him the chance to file nomination papers.
On Sunday evening, the Congress central election committee headed by Mukul Wasnik released a list in which Kishor Gajbhiye was named candidate from Ramtek seat in Nagpur rural. Raut had been lobbying for the seat for a while and was even camping in Delhi till Saturday for that purpose. Apparently, Gajbhiye was the choice of MPCC president Ashok Chavan and Wasnik approved it.

A former IAS officer, Gajbhiye had contested state elections from Nagpur North seat on Bahujan Samaj Party ticket in 2014. He was pitted against Raut, three-term sitting member and BJP’s new comer Milin Mane. But the strong Modi wave at that time ensured Mane’s victory with Raut being relegated to third place and Gajbhiye scoring over him. Less than a year ago, Gajbhiye switched over to Congress and was inducted by Chavan to counter the influence of Raut who was part of rebel group in the state Congress opposing Chavan on several issues.

Now Raut is claiming that the party president noticed on Monday during the CWC meeting that against his instructions Raut was dropped from candidates’ list and Gajbhiye was given the ticket. “I am told Rahulji immediately intervened and told Wasnik and K C Venugopal to declare my candidature. I received a call from Venugopal who asked me to file nomination papers assuring me that I would be provided A-B form. I did prepare my papers in a hurry and waited till 3 pm. But for want of A-B form, I could not file papers and left the collectorate premises after the deadline.

“Meanwhile, we tried to contact MPCC office in Mumbai and were told by functionary concerned that there were no instructions from the state president for providing me the A-B form and so it could not be given,” Raut alleged.