Jagtap a favourite for Bandra

Detractors not in favour of first choice Narayan Rane for the seat

A section of Congress leaders are pitching for Bhai Jagtap for the Bandra (east) constituency that fell vacant after the demise of Sena MLA Bala Sawant. The Congress’ first choice was senior leader Narayan Rane who lost the election from Konkan in the Assembly polls. However, Mr Rane’s detractors within the party do not want him to get elected from the seat and are therefore pitching for Mr Jagtap.

Mr Jagtap is a MLC and had lost the last Assembly polls from suburb. He is young and inexperienced compared to Mr Rane. However, the party needs someone strong like Mr Rane in the Assembly as their numbers are less compared to Shiv Sena and BJP. “A section of the Congress party wants Bhai Jagtap to contest the by-poll and is pitching his name before the state leadership. The party has yet not taken a call on it,” a Congress leader said.

Mr Rane has also not taken any decision on contesting the by-poll. The seat, which has sizable slum pockets, did not earn sufficient votes for a previous Congress candidate. A Sena candidate won the polls, with BJP bagging second and MIM on third position in the Assembly results. The sources in the party said that Mr Rane might not have to take the risk of contesting the polls from the area.

There is already a tussle going on between Shiv Sena and BJP for the seat. Despite being in the government together, BJP wants to field its candidate on the seat against a Sena candidate. Shiv Sena has almost finalised Bala Sawant’s widow Trupti’s name for the seat and it will be declared soon. However, BJP has yet not disclosed the name of their candidate. The Thackeray residence Matoshree falls in the constituency. Sena leaders have refused to comment on the issue but are confident that sympathy is with the party. However, the possible move by the BJP to field a candidate had not gone down well with the Sena leadership, a senior Sena minister said.

NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik who had also lost the Assembly seat is interested in contesting from the Bandra constituency. The area has a huge pocket of slums and dominant Muslims might go in favour of Mr Malik, sources in the NCP said.