NCP to ask for two more assembly seats each in city and rural
| Date :12-Jul-2019 |
By Vikas Vaidya:
Stalwart NCP leader in Vidarbha, Anil Deshmukh feels mere one seat each in urban and rural will not attract people to join party
City NCP issue, too, to be resolved soon
With every party gearing up for Maharashtra Assembly elections, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), too, has started its preparations. In Nagpur, too, it is getting ready under the leadership of Anil Deshmukh. Now, it has decided to ask for two more Assembly seats in urban and two more in rural. Like Congress, NCP, too suffered defeat but unlike Congress where leadership issue is demoralising the party workers, in NCP, the very next day its supremo Sharad Pawar took control of the party and gave a call to everybody to prepare for winning assembly elections.
Anil Deshmukh, a stalwart NCP leader, told The Hitavada, “Our Party has started convening meetings. Sharad Pawar himself is addressing the meeting of every section of the party. He has already completed round of meetings of all cells. There is an atmosphere of enthusiasm and vibration in the party.” Though in last assembly election, Deshmukh had to bite dust in Katol, his ‘garh’ for years together, this time he is confident of winning.
The unexpected actions taken by Dr Ashish Deshmukh can be one of the factors that could make win of Anil Deshmukh easier. Congress had given two seats to NCP in Nagpur area-- one is South Nagpur (urban) and other is Hingna (rural). In South Nagpur, NCP’s Dinanath Padole, a two time Congress MLA could garner around 4,000 votes while Ramesh Bang was defeated by novice Sameer Meghe. Now, NCP is asking two more seats in urban and rural each. Deshmukh pointed out, “We want two more seats in urban -- East and West and two in rural -- Umrer and Kamptee. We are confident that we could perform well this time.”
The close confidants of Deshmukh justifies the demand by arguing that unless Party has good number of Assembly and Corporation seats, it would not be able to attract people to NCP fold. In Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) too it has only one Corporator as Duneshwar Pethe. Its number in Corporation too has not increased much. Some insiders object on Deshmukh’s demand. They say asking for more seats is not bad but whom the seats could be allotted? There are no candidates who can ably contest the election and give a fight, say one NCP leader. Deshmukh effectively counters the argument. “Once the constituencies allotted good faces start approaching us. The experienced ones will not need so much time to cope with the pressure. They can pose a great fight, I am confident.”
City NCP President issue is in limbo Though there is lot of resentment among party members on the issue of President of NCP city unit, it has not resolved yet. Everybody in the party is unhappy with the working style of Anil Ahirkar who has already submitted the resignation with party leadership. Party is awaiting to get new face who could steer up city unit when elections are round the corner.