BJP won’t vacate Ramtek, Katol seats for Shiv Sena: Bawankule
| Date :12-Sep-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
Vijay Ghodmare free to exercise his options, says Guardian Minister
“Bharatiya Janata Party had won both -- Ramtek and Katol -- seats in State Legislative Assembly elections held in 2014. Hence, there is no question of BJP leaving these two seats for Shiv Sena in the ensuing Assembly elections,” said Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Guardian Minister of district. Bawankule was replying to questions of mediapersons during a press interaction held at Deshpande Hall here on Wednesday after District Planning Committee (DPC) meeting. Shiv Sena local leaders have requested their party high-command to field candidates from Ramtek and Katol constituencies. As BJP and Shiv Sena are set to contest Assembly elections in pre-poll alliance, the demand by Shiv Sena local leaders has been a talk of the town.
Asked about this, Bawankule said that Shiv Sena had every right to make any demand. However, he said, fact remained that BJP had won both these seats in 2014. D Mallikarjun Reddy of BJP represents Ramtek constituency. He had defeated the incumbent Adv Ashish Jaiswal of Shiv Sena. Dr Ashish Deshmukh of BJP had won from Katol constituency but resigned last year. Since then, the constituency was waiting for by-polls. At present, there are several claimants to Katol seat, within BJP as well as Shiv Sena. “Since we had won both the seats in 2014, there is no question of leaving these for Shiv Sena in 2019 elections,” Bawankule said.
Asked if BJP was thinking of replacing a couple of its sitting MLAs in ensuing Assembly elections, he remarked that it was for the party’s Central leadership to take decision in this regard. To a question relating to former BJP MLA Vijay Ghodmare being in touch with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bawankule said that Ghodmare was ‘free to exercise his options’. Ghodmare had defeated NCP’s bigwig Rameshchandra Bang in Assembly elections in 2009. Later, in 2014, BJP replaced Ghodmare with Sameer Meghe, who got elected. Bawankule said, “Meghe’s performance has been excellent. So, there is no question of not repeating him.” Sudhakar Deshmukh, West Nagpur MLA and senior leader of BJP, was also present during the interaction with mediapersons.
He said, “Let me respond to the question. Ghodmare was not visible on BJP’s fora since Meghe’s election in Hingna. Thus, he was otherwise also not contributing to BJP.” Asked about Jayant Patil, NCP State President, making a statement that ‘several’ leaders of BJP were in touch with him, Bawankule said, “He (Patil) must have made the statement out of dejection, as NCP leaders are quitting his party.” As far as Zilla Parishad (ZP) elections are concerned, the Guardian Minister of district said that the next hearing in this regard was scheduled on October 31 before the Supreme Court. “Once the Caste Census data results are received, the submission based on the same would be communicated to the Supreme Court,” he added.