NCP MLA, Ajit Pawar Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Maharashtra, has expressed the need for the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) constituents to come together, like they did for the bypoll to the Kasba Peth Assembly seat, to achieve maximum success.
“If all MVA leaders and workers come together like they did for the Kasba Peth bypoll, there is a possibility of achieving 100 per cent success,” Pawar said during an interview with a Marathi news channel.
In Kasba Peth, MVA candidate Ravindra Dhangekar, who belongs to the Congress, defeated BJP candidate Hemant Rasane by over 11,000 votes in a straight fight. In the Chinchwad bypoll which took place simultaneously, BJP candidate Ashwini Jagtap won against the MVA’s Nana Kate by over 36,000 votes in a three-cornered contest. The results were declared on March 2.
To a question whether the MVA will remain united, Pawar said, “If the top leaders of all the three parties decide, then it is quite possible.”
He added that the three-party combine failed in the Chinchwad bypoll because two MVA leaders fought the elections. “Rahul Kalate filed his form as a Shiv Sena leader. Nana Kate was from the NCP. We tried our best to get one of them to drop out of the race. We gave them other offers but they refused to listen,” Pawar said.
“In the 2019 elections, Kalate had contested from the Chinchwad seat. At the time, the NCP had supported him as a Sena rebel. Since he had secured 1.12 lakh votes, he insisted that he would not withdraw from the race (this time). I, Uddhav Thackeray and other leaders thought that he would withdraw from the race. Even after he filed the nomination, we all made efforts to get him to drop out of the race. We all felt that if he contests the election, the votes will get divided. And that is exactly what happened. If we look at the votes polled by Kalate and our official candidate, they are much more than that of the BJP candidate,” Pawar explained.
Had there been a straight fight in Chinchwad, like in Kasba, the MVA candidate would have won, he added. “In the Kasba Peth bypoll, there was a straight fight. While in Chinchwad, there was a three-cornered contest. In a straight fight, the MVA has an upper hand. In earlier elections in Kasba Peth, there used to be three-four candidates which led to the division of votes and the victory of BJP candidate Girish Bapat. Even Ravindra Dhangekar once lost from the same seat on an MNS ticket. This time, MVA leaders and workers all came together and put up a united fight which led to Dhangekar’s victory. There is no doubt that Dhangekar himself is a popular leader…,” he said.
The NCP leader said the victory in Kasba came against all odds. “Despite the money power employed by the BJP and the misuse of the police force, the MVA candidate won. It only shows that if MVA leaders and workers fight unitedly, they will surely be successful,” he said.