Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared all its candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. On Friday morning, the saffron party released its final list which created a huge uproar in the BJP.
Senior BJP leaders including Vinod Tawde, Eknath Khadse, Prakash Mehta and Raj Purohit were shown the exit door after their name was not listed in any of the candidate list declared by the party.
In its first list, BJP listed 125 names including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and party's state unit President Chandrakant Patil who will be contesting 2019 Maharashtra assembly elections which are scheduled on October 21.
In the second list, BJP released 14 names followed by four names in third and seven names in fourth list of candidates. However, the names of high-profile leaders – Tawde, Khadse, Mehta and Purohit - were still missing from the list.
However, BJP on Friday morning named Rohini Khadse, daughter of Eknath Khadse, to contest from Muktainagar assembly constituency for the upcoming polls. This comes as a measure to calm Khadse and his supporters.
Eknath Khadse served as Maharashtra Revenue Minister in the Devendra Fadnavis government. However, Khadse had to resign from his cabinet position in the state government after being named in the alleged MIDC land scam.
Khadse termed the nomination of his daughter as "belated" while saying that he will work for the victory of other BJP candidates and will abide by the party's decisions.
However, Vinod Tawde who served as the state Education Minister was ignored by the BJP. Tawde is the incumbent BJP MLA from Borivali assembly constituency and the party has given this ticket to Sunil Rane.
While talking to the media, Tawde stated that he has no resentment, whatsoever. "I accept the decision taken by the party to not give me a chance this time. Nation First, then Party and Self last," said Tawde.
In the political corridors, there is a discussion that Tawde and Devendra Fadnavis don't get along well. Tawde, who is a prominent leader, was once in the race for being the Chief Minister. However, the education minister was shown the door today.
This is Prakash Mehta's six consecutive terms as the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA). Mehta is an incumbent BJP MLA from Ghatkopar East and serves as the Housing Department minister in Devendra Fadnavis-led government.
However, his ticket was given to BJP corporator Parag Shah. As this happened, Mehta's supporters got out to protest against the BJP decision to revoke his ticket. Mehta's supporters expressed their anger by attacking Shah's car while he was on his way to file nomination. As the clash happened, Prakash Mehta tried to pacify his supporters.
On the other hand, Raj Purohit's ticket was given to Rahul Narvekar. Earlier in 2015, Purohit got into trouble after he was featured in a sting in which he made remarks regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah's way of working.
The major reason for the revocation of the ticket of the senior leader lies behind their involvement in scams or irregularities. BJP has come down hard on these leaders, despite the leaders being seniors in the BJP, who were in any way indulged in scams or things which affected the party and its work in the government.
Maharashtra will vote on October 21 while the results for the same will be out on October 24. Moreover, October 4 is the last day for the candidates across all parties to file their nomination and they can withdraw the same till October 7.
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