Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too is gearing up for local body polls. On Thursday, its leaders and in-charge of districts of East Vidarbha conducted interviews of aspirants. Meanwhile, all Congress candidates for the municipal elections have been approved, a decision was taken in the political board meeting. “The influx of people joining the Congress will increase in the coming days, many in the ruling party are willing to join the Congress,” said MPCC President Harshvardhan Sapkal. BJP convened a meeting to discues the issue of interviews of the aspirants of Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Council polls of East Vidarbha districts, on Thursday. Vidarbha Organising Secretary Dr Upendra Kothekar also was present. Dr Parinay Fuke of Bhandara, Pravin Datke for Nagpur, Bunty Bhangadia for Gadchiroli, Dr Pankaj Bhoyar for Wardha, Girish Vyas for Gondia, Ashok Nete for Chandrapur attended the meeting.

 

The party candidates for the polls are almost finalised. A two-day meeting of the Congress State Election Board was held at Tilak Bhavan, Mumbai, on Thursday. The meeting was attended by Legislative Party Leader Vijay Wadettiwar, Legislative Council Group Leader Satej alias Bunty Patil, Co-in-charge B M Sandeep, Congress Working Committee member, former minister Naseem Khan, State Vice-President Mohan Joshi, Wajahat Mirza, State General Secretary, Organisation and Administration Adv Ganesh Patil, Siddharth Hattiambire, Sachin Naik, and others also were present.

 

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Sapkal said, the process of finalising candidates for the municipal and nagar panchayat elections has been completed in this two-day meeting of the State Election Board. The candidature has been finalised after discussing with the local leadership. The political equations in each district are different. At the local level, an alliance has been formed after discussing with like-minded parties. In some districts, an alliance has been formed with Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, Peasants and Workers Party, Shetkari Sanghatana. Sapkal said that, no proposal has been received from any district regarding an alliance with MNS.

 

 

Juneed Khan, a staunch supporter of BJP MLA Bunty Bhagadia from Chandrapur district and Maharashtra State General Secretary of BJP Minority Front, joined the Congress party along with his colleagues in the presence of Congress State President Harshvardhan Sapkal and Legislature Party Leader Vijay Wadettiwar. Sapkal welcomed everyone to the Congress party. The feeling of being cheated in the grand alliance is growing in the minds of numerous office-bearers of all the three parties.

 

 

Rift within the constituents of Maha Vikas Aaghadi is clearly visible in Nagpur. Two days ago, former Corporator Deepak Kapse, and other leaders had joined Shiv Sena (UBT) in support of Dushyant Chaturvedi. But Dushyant recently joined Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) which is a part of MVA so Kapse and others joined Congress. On Thursday, some leaders of NCP (Sharad Pawar), including Ravinish Pandey (Chintu Maharaj) again a part of MVA, joined Congress expressing faith in the leadership of Vikas Thakre, City President of Congress. General Secretary of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Umakant Agnihotri, City Vice President Prof Dinesh Banabakode and others were present. Shinde fixes poll responsibility with Tumane, Jaiswal, Pandav Deputy Chief Minister and Shiv Sena President Eknath Shinde has fixed the responsibility of Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Council polls in Nagpur district with MLC Krupal Tumane, East Vidarbha Organiser Kiran Pandav and Minister of State Ashish Jaiswal. Tumane will take care of 7 Municipal Councils and 9 Nagar Panchayats of Saoner, Hingna, Umred, Kamptee while the responsibility of Ramtek has been bestowed upon Ashish Jaiswal. Kiran Pandav will monitor the polls in Katol, Kalmeshwar and Khapa. 

 

 

CANDIDATES contesting the next month’s Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat elections in Maharashtra will not be required to upload any documents on the election portal while filling their nomination forms. The State Election Commission (SEC) has clarified that only the details in the nomination form and affidavit need to be filled online. After completing the details on the official election portal, candidates must take a printout of the filled form and affidavit, sign them, and submit the hard copies along with required documents to the designated Returning Officer before the deadline.