Amravati constituency latest headache for ruling alliance

Ruling alliance faces internal conflict in Amravati as BJP's potential candidate faces legal uncertainty over caste certificate. Opposition within alliance.

MUMBAI: After Baramati and Madha in Solapur, the ruling alliance is staring at internecine strife in Amravati where sitting MP Navneet Rana is the BJP’s potential candidate. Apart from the legal uncertainty over her caste certificate, the ruling alliance’s local leaders have opposed her candidature.

New Delhi, India - Aug. 6, 2022: Independant MP Navneet Rana before casting her vote during the Vice Presidential election, at Parliament House, in New Delhi, India, on Saturday, August 6, 2022. (Photo by Arvind Yadav/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The Supreme Court, last month, completed the hearing on the petition against Rana’s caste validity and is expected to pronounce the verdict next week. The Bombay high court in 2021 had ruled that the sitting MP’s scheduled caste certificate was obtained fraudulently. The order was challenged in the apex court. Amaravati constituency is reserved for scheduled caste candidates.

The BJP, which had on multiple occasions in the past announced Rana as its candidate, is now in two minds. Intensifying the resistance, Bachchu Kadu, Prahar Janshakti Party chief and an ally in the ruling alliance, has opposed Rana’s candidature. Kadu’s party has two MLAs.

Kadu said that his party had decided to field a disgruntled BJP leader from Amravati. “It’s not just us; even workers and leaders from the ruling parties are opposing Rana,” he said. We have identified an aggrieved BJP leader who will be our candidate from Amravati. All the (ruling) parties will work for him and we have decided to file his nomination on April 3.” Apart from Kadu, many leaders in the BJP’s district unit are not happy with Rana’s style of working and have raised doubts about her potential to win.

After Kadu’s announcement, chief minister Eknath Shinde has invited him to a meeting in Mumbai, where he is expected to pacify Kadu and persuade him to not field anyone against the alliance candidate.

“After winning as an independent, Rana stood for the BJP for the last five years, and thus our party leadership had announced her candidature,” said a BJP leader requesting anonymity. “However, her caste validity case is expected to be decided in the first week of April, and if the apex court upholds the Bombay HC ruling, she will be debarred from contesting. This would be embarrassing for us. We have, therefore, kept our options open by shortlisting two other candidates. This will help us in easing off the resentment against Rana.”

One of Rana’s controversial moves was in April 2022 during the tenure of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi government led by Uddhav Thackeray. MNS chief Raj Thackeray had warned the government that if loudspeakers were not removed from mosques, his workers would play the Hanuman Chalisa over loudspeakers as well. Jumping into the face-off, Rana announced that she and her MLA husband Ravi Rana would chant the Hanuman Chalisa outside Thackeray’s Bandra bungalow. However, the couple was arrested by the government and sent to prison.