Congress rebels Bhutto, Babhre, Chaudhari to contest n 150, including over 10 ex-Corporators, withdraw  

 

Except three candidates, the Congress party did not witness too many rebels for the Nagpur Municipal elections. On the day of withdrawal, its three candidates, who were denied tickets, decided to remain in fray as independents. It shows that the party, which used to get torrent of applications from the workers, now is not in demand. Nearly 5,000 aspirants applied for 151 seats from BJP but Congress did not witness such an overwhelming response from its party workers. Zulfakar Bhutto, a close confidant of former Minister Anees Ahmed; Kamlesh Chaudhari, son of former corporator Dilip Chaudhari was dismissed from the party for the anti-party activity in 2024 Assembly polls and Vijay Babhre were denied tickets by Congress in Nagpur Municipal polls.

 

They have now decided to contest as independents. Zulfakar Bhutto, who had won from Prabhag 8 in 2017 as an official party candidate, did not get ticket this time. According to the party leaders, this is for the first time that Congress remained united and could prevent the rebellion except in case of these three candidates. But some experts said that Congress gave tickets in a haphazard manner with little calculations. It is evident from the fact that though the party claimed that there were a lot of aspirants, the reality was different. Bhutto and Babhre are the experienced leaders in Congress as far as corporation politics is concerned. Denying tickets to them may come back to haunt Congress, which is aiming to increase its tally from 29 seats which it had won in 2017. Lack of response from the party workers also shows that Congress is contesting polls without a winning instinct.

 

 

To achieve the target of ‘Mission 100 Nagarsevak’ with the support of people, all leaders and workers of Congress are united, and no rebels remained in the fray, Congress claimed. Around 150 Congress leaders, including over 10 former corporators, withdrew their nomination papers on Friday and resolved to bring Congress back to power after 19 years. Former corporators who withdrew include Purushottam Hazare from Prabhag-25, Rashmi Uikey from Prabhag-10, Arun Dawre from Prabhag-12, Amar Bagde from Prabhag-13, Asha Uikey from Prabhag-8, Jishan Mumtaz Mohammed Irfan Ansari from Prabhag-8, and Farhan Khan Kurban Khan from Prabhag-19. Taking a party first stand, popular Congress leaders such as Owais Kadri, Pooja Manmode, Rajesh Tiwari, Munna Verma, Sudhakar Todase, Maya Wankhede, Fardin Ganni Khan, and others also withdrew their nominations. President of Nagpur City (District) Congress Committee, Vikas Thakre, along with other Congress leaders including North Nagpur MLA Nitin Raut, MLC Abhijeet Wanjari, Girish Pandav, Atul Kotecha, Praful Gudadhe, Bunty Shelke, thanked all those who withdrew their nomination papers.