MUMBAI :
In a surprising development, the BJP on Tuesday asked one of its four nominees for the May 21 Legislative Council elections to nine seats to withdraw and instead declared one of its two dummy candidates as an official nominee of the party.
The party has asked Dr Ajit Gopchade, hailing from Nanded district of Marathwada region, who was among four-party nominees, to withdraw his nomination and in his place, gave a chance to its dummy candidate Ramesh Karad, hailing from Latur district of Marathwada and follower of late Gopinath Munde.
Other three official candidates are Gopichand Padalkar, Pravin Datke and Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, who have already filed their nomination papers.
Karad, along with Sandip Lele, had filed the nominations as dummy candidates of BJP on the last day of filing of nominations on Monday. The BJP’s decision to field the lesser-known faces has angered its senior leaders like former ministers Eknath Khadse, Pankaja Munde and Chandrashekhar Bavankule, who were keen to contest this election.
Khadse, while expressing his dismay over the party’s decision in Jalgaon on Tuesday, claimed that those who abused the party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been given tickets while senior leaders like him, who had toiled for the party for more than four decades, were neglected and sidelined.
The BJP leader also made a shocking revelation about the Congress party’s offer to him of a ticket for Council election, which he declined. “If I had accepted their proposal, at least seven BJP legislators were ready to cross-vote in the polls,” Khadse added.
