Nagpur. After the defeat of its supported candidate in the Legislative Council elections, the Congress is accusing the BJP of horse-marketing i.e. buying voters. No Congress leader is ready to take moral responsibility for the defeat. Even after the Maha Vikas Aghadi in the state, there was no unity between the Congress-NCC-Shiv Sena in Nagpur seat. Congress leaders, who played the main role in the elections, kept on pulling their legs. BJP got the benefit of this.
The Congress did not give a strong candidate from its side and it seemed that it was surrendering before the elections. However, during the 10-15 days, many developments took place and once it was felt that this time Congress is going to win this third election after Zilla Parishad elections and post office elections and third dent in BJP’s stronghold. State President Nana Patole himself was taking special intervention in this election. But against BJP’s weighty candidate Chandrashekhar Bawankule, a weighty candidate was not fielded. The leaders kept on pulling each other’s legs. Patole made a fortification to surround the BJP by making a strategy, but his own ministers left no stone unturned to thwart his strategy.
Mulak was not given candidature
As soon as BJP declared Bawankule as its candidate, it seemed to everyone that Congress would field former minister Rajendra Mulak, the heaviest candidate against him. Mulak has won the elections before this and that too when the BJP itself was claiming to have more votes than the Congress. In this election also, it was considered almost certain to field Mulk. But if some Congressmen are to be believed, if Mulak had won the election, the weight of Animal Promotion Minister Sunil Kedar, who has made his inroads as the only weight leader in the district, would not have been left alone. They did not want Mulak to get a ticket. The news was also spread that Mulak himself did not want to contest the elections. Despite this, unity was shown among the Congressmen till the candidature was decided. Leaders of all the groups were involved in every meeting.
imported volunteers
Meanwhile, the intervention of state president Nana Patole started. According to experts, Patole calculated that the voters of BJP are more than the constituents of Congress or Mavia. If a BJP person is brought into the party after breaking up and he is made a candidate, then the votes of the BJP camp will also split and he will get it. Victory is possible with this strategy. He got BJP’s disgruntled but senior corporator Chhotu Bhoyar into the Congress and also made him a candidate for the opposition elections. There was anger among many Congress corporators by bringing in Sangh volunteers and BJP and giving their candidature immediately, but under compulsion, the pretense of staying with the imposed candidate continued.
The ‘played’ didn’t end here
Bhoyer was nominated by Nana Patole. Had Bhoyar won this election, not only in the state but also in the Delhi court, Patole would have become more weighty. Experts say that both Nitin Raut and Sunil Kedar did not want this minister. Now both started pressurizing Patole to change the candidate. Both believed that due to Bhoyar being a BJP, the party’s corporator and other voters, including ZIP members, could be dissuaded. This will harm the party. Along with telling his maths, the candidates kept increasing the pressure to change. Here, the Congressmen left Bhoyar, who was brought from the BJP with pomp and fanfare.
Bhoyer was also accused by a faction of Congress that he is not even meeting anyone and not even spending. Due to both the ministers and the fear of factionalism, Patole finally issued an order to support independent Mangesh Deshmukh instead of Bhoyar 12 hours before the polling. The result was that due to this sudden U-turn, the election became one-sided. The Congress was working on the strategy to win the seat, it got out of hand. It is also discussed that Sunil Kedar has ‘played’ to maintain friendship with Bawankule and Gadkari.