Prasad Lad, Manoj Kotak withdraw from Legislative Council fray

Fearing backlash within the party fold against ‘outsider’ candidates, BJP was forced to withdraw official candidate Prasad Lad and independent candidate Manoj Kotak from the Legislative Council fray on Friday. The 10 candidates Ramraje Nimbalkar (NCP), Dhananjay Munde (NCP), Narayan Rane (INC), Pravin Darekar (BJP), R.N. Singh (BJP), Surjit Singh Thakur (BJP), Sadabhau Khot (Swabhiman Shetkari Paksha), Vinayak Mete (Shiv Sangram), Subhash Desai (Sena) and Diwakar Raote (Sena) have been declared elected unopposed for 10 seats. Mr Khot and Mr Mete are backed by BJP.

However, BJP still has a lot of internal opposition to Mr Darekar and R.N. Singh. “Honest candidates are forced to withdraw and corrupt have got elected. The image of the party has been seriously dented and Mumbai BJP leadership should be blamed for that,” said BJP Mumbai secretary. Vivekanand Gupta. Mr Gupta was referring to Mr Kotak’s withdrawal, who was promised a seat as a representative of the Gujarati community. However, he was said no at the last moment.

Replying to the backlash within the party, R.N. Singh said he did not much care about his political rivals who according to him were very small as far his stature was concerned. Mr Singh’s remarks, has evoked sharp criticism from BJP. Mr Gupta said Mr Singh has shown his true mentality, and demanded that the party leadership take cognisance of his comments. Mr Singh is also known to keep allegiance with Congress leader, Kripashankar Singh.

“He (Singh) has only exposed his own culture by equating the party workers to dogs. We want to say that we are faithful dogs and working together as democratic watchdogs in our party,” said Mr Gupta, who had exposed Mr Darekar’s involvement in the alleged Mumbai Bank scam. A senior BJP leader, on condition of anonymity, said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis was not quite happy with the candidature of Mr Darekar and Mr Lad.