Sapkal’s Baramati adventure

He was ridiculed by the ruling parties and even Congress allies for going against the state’s political tradition

MUMBAI: When state Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal announced that his party would contest the assembly by-election in Baramati opposite deputy CM Sunetra Pawar, he was ridiculed by the ruling parties and even Congress allies. Some of his party colleagues too were opposed to the move. Sapkal was criticised for not following Maharashtra’s political tradition, where, in the event of a prominent politician dying, parties do not field a candidate if the politician’s kin choose to stand in the subsequent by-election. On social media, Sapkal was trolled for contesting a seat where the Congress candidate would probably have lost even his deposit. The state Congress chief, however, stuck to his guns, pointing out that there were several elections where parties did field candidates after the death of the sitting legislator. (The tradition is only for top leaders).

Sapkal’s Baramati adventure

Meanwhile, the last two days before the deadline for withdrawal of candidature saw a flurry of activity, with several top Maharashtra leaders, including CM Devendra Fadnavis and NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar, appealing to the Congress to withdraw. Party insiders said that Sunetra Pawar spoke to Sapkal more than once while Fadnavis communicated with him on senior NCP minister Dhananjay Munde’s phone. During her Delhi visit, Sunetra Pawar also met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The party finally decided to withdraw. There have been mixed reactions to the episode, with some stating that Sapkal was unnecessarily being adamant while others in his own party believe that he did what most of his predecessors avoided—tried to enter Pawar territory despite the odds, and also acted on his endeavour to create a perception that the Congress was the main opposition party in the state. Either way, one thing is certain: the Congress became a talking point in political circles for some time.

Mundhe’s constant transfers

IAS officer Tukaram Mundhe is now known for being transferred from post to post by politicians who find it difficult to deal with him. The 2005-batch officer has been transferred over 20 times till now. In the latest instance, on March 31, he was shifted from the persons with disabilities welfare department after he launched a drive to ferret out and take action against staffers who, despite being ineligible, had purloined government jobs from the disabled persons quota. He was transferred to the disaster management, relief and rehabilitation department as its secretary but this was cancelled within a week.

When the transfer happened, Mundhe was in West Bengal as an election observer and then rushed home, as his mother passed away. Last Tuesday, his posting was cancelled and the charge was given to another officer. Mundhe has now been kept waiting for his new assignment. The buzz in Mantralaya is that somebody in the government was not keen to have him in the disaster control department which is in charge of several infrastructure-related works for the Simhastha Kumbh Mela which is being organised on a grand scale at Nashik next year.

Sena (UBT) MP’s written oath

Arvind Sawant, South Mumbai MP and Shiv Sena (UBT) group leader in the Lok Sabha, was quizzed by media persons on Friday following fresh conjecture that several Sena (UBT) MPs could be joining the Eknath Shinde Shiv Sena. When Sawant ridiculed the speculation, a media person asked him if he would state it in writing. An irked Sawant took out his letterhead and wrote a public letter during the press conference itself. He then read out what he had written—that he would never leave the party and would always be a Thackeray loyalist. “I was a union minister and quit the post after one phone call from Uddhav Thackeray,” he said later. “I didn’t have to but I wrote the public letter because I was fed up with the constant speculation.”