Close to 150 rebels in Maharashtra poll fray, pose challenge to MVA & Mahayuti

MUMBAI/NAGPUR: Rebels threatened to become a headache for the two major alliances in the state as nominations for the assembly polls drew to a close Tuesday. While Mahayuti identified 80 rebels, close to 150 politicians in all from across parties have filed nominations in defiance of their party's, or multi-party alliance's, official candidates. With Nov 4 being the last date for withdrawing nominations, the fronts have nearly a week to sort out differences and persuade rebels to pull out of the fray.

Both the MVA and the Mahayuti said they had declared candidates for all 288 seats.

After nominations closed, MVA had accounted for 286 of its nominees filing papers (103 from Congress - final figure for that party - 96 from Sena-UBT and 87 from Sharad Pawar-led NCP), with the three parties giving seats from their own quotas to smaller allies. In Mahayuti, the count came to 284 (BJ, Shiv Sena 80 and NCP 52), including smaller allies. Both alliances said the remaining seats would be accounted for once information came in from various parts of the state. However, from Mahayuti list, it appears it has declared two candidates in 5 constituencies, and none in two seats; it has declared 289 candidates in all.

Among the prominent rebels are BJP's Gopal Shetty from Borivli who has filed papers against his party's official candidate Sanjay Upadhyay and NCP minister Chhagan Bhujbal's nephew Sameer, who has filed his nomination as an independent candidate from Nandgaon assembly constituency in Nashik district against Shiv Sena MLA Suhas Kande.

Prominent netas of Mahayuti and MVA admitted that the presence of rebels in the fray is a cause for concern and that they would have to tackle the matter. There is time still to do that: papers of candidates will be scrutinised on Wednesday and Nov 4 is the last date for withdrawal of candidatures. After that, a clear picture will emerge on the number of rebels still left in the fray.

While the confusion that prevailed for a fortnight over who would contest how many seats more or less ended on Tuesday, significantly the Mahayuti, despite several rounds of talks, kept its seat-sharing formula secret throughout, while MVA's formula kept changing publicly. Initially, it was proposed that Congress would contest 103 seats, UBT Shiv Sena 90, and NCP (SP) 85. Later, UBT Sena MP Sanjay Raut proposed a formula of 85 seats each, and since there was no consensus on that, Congress legislature party leader Balasaheb Thorat proposed a new formula, where all constituents of MVA would contest 90 seats each. The dispute was then taken to the court of the AICC, followed by separate meetings with Sharad Pawar and Uddhav Thackeray, after which the issue was resolved. "There was no fixed formula; seats were decided based on merit and the winnability factor," a senior Congress politician said.

State NCP president Sunil Tatkare said the seat-sharing formula of the Mahayuti was decided after considering all factors. "We took note of the winnability factor. I am sure that the Mahayuti will retain power in the state," he said. Tatkare has convened a meeting of all senior leaders of his party on Wednesday to take stock of the political situation. "We will meet our senior leaders to resolve intra-party disputes," Tatkare said.

Mumbai BJP chief Ashish Shelar was also confident of Mahayuti's win, saying selection of candidates was purely on merit and their ability to deliver and to tackle problems faced by the people. "We will lead once again," Shelar said. Shelar felt the political picture in the state would be clear after the last date of withdrawal of nominations. "We will know the exact number of candidates in the fray after the last date of withdrawal," he said.

AICC secretary Ramesh Chennithala said that the people of Maharashtra would reject the "corrupt" Mahayuti govt led by Eknath Shinde.