Reddy’s rebellion adds twist to fight in Ramtek

 

 

 

AS ASSEMBLY elections loom closer, the Ramtek constituency in Nagpur district is becoming a matter of concern for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after the rebellion by former MLA Mallikarjun Reddy. Ramtek has been traditionally a stronghold of Shiv Sena. In 2019, the victory of Adv Ashish Jaiswal, as an independent, regained his hold which he had lost in 2014 to BJP. The formation of ‘Mahayuti’ with Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) and Nationalist Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) in the State will compel BJP to leave the seat for Adv Jaiswal for upcoming election.

 

 

Chief Minister Eknath Shinde recently confirmed Adv Jaiswal’s nomination from Ramtek which effectively ended the chances of BJP’s Reddy. A miffed Reddy turned rebel and started anti-party activities which forced BJP to expel him from the party for the next six years. It has resulted in anger and dissatisfaction among local party members. All these latest developments in BJP have made the upcoming Assembly election in Ramtek more interesting. In 2019, Jaiswal contested as an independent, defeating both BJP and Congress nominees. Jaiswal ousted Reddy with a big margin of 24,413 polls in the election. He got 67,419 votes and Reddy bagged 43,006 votes.

 

However, in 2014, Adv Jaiswal faced defeat against Reddy by 12,081 votes. At that time Jaiswal contested the election on Shiv Sena’s ticket. In 2014, Reddy bagged 34.90 per cent votes whereas Jaiswal bagged only 27.8 per cent votes. Before 2014, Shiv Sena was a dominant force as Adv Jaiswal scored hat-trick in Assembly elections by winning 1999, 2004 and 2009 polls. Adv Jaiswal was just 28 years old when he won his first election from Ramtek in 1999. Jaiswal got 42,350 votes out of 1,09,422 total valid votes. Anandrao Deshmukh of Congress bagged 35,035 votes in that election. Thereafter in 2004, Adv Jaiswal retained his MLA seat by winning the election with 41,115 votes, with loss of 1,235 votes as compared to his tally from 1999 election. His dominance continued in 2009 when he again got victorious in the polls by securing 49,937 votes, just 3,361 more than Subodh Mohite of Congress. In 2009, BJP’s Reddy was third in the race with 34,304 votes in his favour. On one hand the local leaders of BJP are not in a mood to leave the Ramtek seat for Jaiswal, and on the other hand Shiv Sena (Shinde) also does not want to sacrifice stronghold for BJP.