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Maharashtra: Farmer leader Raju Shetti turns down NCP's offer for MLC nomination?

Two senior leaders from the SSS - Jalinder Patil and Anil alias Savkar Balu Madnaik - have openly expressed their displeasure against Shetti’s decision to accept NCP’s offer for the MLC nomination.

Maharashtra: Farmer leader Raju Shetti turns down NCP's offer for MLC nomination?
SHARES


Swabhimani Shetkari Sangathan (SSS) founder Raju Shetti has refused the ticket to the legislative council in Maharashtra on Nationalist Congress Party’s (NCP) quota in order to avoid a split in his party.

Shetti announced that he has decided to reject NCP’s offer for nomination to the legislative council on governor’s quota after senior leaders from his party raised an objection. He said that it was important for him to keep his party from falling apart. 

After NCP extended the offer for Shetti's nomination to the Vidhan Parishad, he met NCP chief Sharad Pawar on June 16 in Baramati in Pune district to convey his decision and announced that he has accepted the MLC seat offer. Pawar had also confirmed their meeting while tweeting that he was accompanied by SSS chief Raju Shetti during their visit to Agricultural Development Trust in Baramati.


The Open Dissent

However, the farmer leader has caved in to save the future of his party. Two senior leaders from the SSS - Jalinder Patil and Anil alias Savkar Balu Madnaik - have openly expressed their displeasure against Shetti’s decision to accept NCP’s offer for the MLC nomination.  

It is learnt that Patil and Madnaik want their names to be pushed for the MLC nomination on NCP quota. Meanwhile, others in the party think that Shetti is the right choice for the candidature for MLC. The leaders inside the party, however, are sure that this issue will be resolved soon. The issue is yet to be discussed with the party chief, the sources informed. 

Earlier, Shetti contested 2019 Lok Sabha elections against Shiv Sena’s Dhairyasheel Mane and lost the polls by a margin of more than 96,000 votes from Hatkanangle constituency. Shetti has been elected as an MP from Hatkanangle Lok Sabha constituency in the year 2009 and 2014.

During the 2014 polls, Shetti’s party became part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which paved his way to become an MP for the second time. However, before LS polls in 2019, the SSS chief sided with the opposition alliance and won zero out of the two seats it contested in western Maharashtra. 

Before the 2019 Maharashtra assembly polls, three senior leaders from the SSS including Ravikant Tupkar joined the BJP. Tupkar was the Maharashtra President of Shetti’s party and his close aid. The Raju Shetti-led SSS is facing similar issues currently. 


The MLC nominations 

In the month of June, 12 seats have gone vacant in the upper house of Maharashtra Legislature and the appointment on these are to be made by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. 

Of these 12 seats, NCP has a total of four in its quota while the rest are supposed to be equally distributed between Congress and Shiv Sena. However, a few days ago, Congress sources had informed that there was trouble in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) over the distribution of council seats. 

Congress has said that during the formation of MVA it was decided that each alliance partner will get four seats. However, Shiv Sena has demanded five seats and wants Congress to sacrifice one from its quota. 

This led to speculations that all was not okay in the Shiv Sena-led MVA government. In order to clear the air, Maharashtra Congress President Balasaheb Thorat and senior party leader Ashok Chavan met Uddhav Thackeray at Matoshree recently. 

Now, the three-party alliance in the MVA government intends to fill their nomination for the MLC as soon as possible. 

Also Read - Another Deadlock Awaits The Uddhav Thackeray Government?

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