With BJP, Congress hesitant to take action, rebels stay put, hope to make an impact

 

 

Leaders of both prominent parties — Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Indian National Congress (INC) — are treading cautiously while dealing with rebels who remain in fray for ensuing elections to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC). Though the senior leaders of both the parties managed to prevail and got majority of the rebels withdraw in favour of official nominees, some continue to test their luck as Independents and refuse to pay heed to the advice. What is more surprising is that the established parties have still not cracked a whip against the party rebels, leaving the official candidates in a tizzy. Political observers are seeing the development as calculated game plan, but this is also indication of rising groupism within the parties, as those rebels unless having backing from some senior leaders would dare to be defiant. For example in BJP, the party is getting cornered in its saffron stronghold, that is Mahal, where Dhiraj Chavan has not withdrawn the nomination.

 

He is pitted against party candidate Bandu Raut. Similarly, Dipak Chowdhary, has also not heeded calls to take back the nomination papers and continuing to test his popularity as Independent. He is in fray from Ayodhya Nagar, Ladikar Layout, New Subhedar Layout, testing his luck for second consecutive time. Another prominent rebel from the BJP camp is Sonali Ghodmare and Vinayak Dehankar, husband of former Mayor Archana Dehankar, who have dared to take cudgels against decision of the party to overlook their claims. In BJP camp, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis himself contacted BJP rebels and ordered them to back out from the fray and fall in line with the choice of party candidate. Dehankar is in fray from Prabhag 17 while Ghodmare from Prabhag 31. Congress also is dealing with rebel factor as former Standing Committee Chairman, Vijay Babhare has banner of revolt.

 

Learning a lesson from previous debacles, Congress chose to try fresh faces, hence overlooked claims of senior and ex-leaders. Another prominent name in fray is that of Pooja Manmode who sought ticket from Congress from Nandanvan area. Though she withdrew from one seat, she remains in contest from adjoining seat in the Prabhag. Ex-corporator Zulfekar Bhutto too has joined the election race from Mominpura area after being rested by Congress. He too was miffed at being denied party ticket and enter the fray as rebel to keep his hopes alive in local politics. Once a staunch supporter of former Minister Anees Ahmed, Bhutto finds himself isolated. Senior politicians maintained that the rebel factor is hardly going to make any impact as in Prabhag system, unless one has party machinery to help one cannot reach out to voters. The 4-member Prabhag system is thus advantageous for bigger parties.