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Solapur: VBA withdraws, AIMIM steps back
Meanwhile, opposition within All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has prompted the party to not field a candidate in Solapur
The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) Solapur candidate Rahul Gaikwad withdrew from the electoral race on the final day of nomination withdrawals on Monday, leaving the contest direct between Praniti Shinde of Congress and Ram Satpute of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
After the withdrawal of nomination papers, Gaikwad said, “Since the last 15 days after the announcement of my candidature, I have been meeting local leaders and residents. I have observed that though people of Solapur are emotional about Ambedkar surname, the VBA movement at the ground level is weak. It seems that I have entered the battlefield with a gun and no bullets. Fighting the polls at this stage will only benefit the BJP. Hence, I do not want to be a reason for the victory of BJP candidate.”
Meanwhile, opposition within All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) has prompted the party to not field a candidate in Solapur.
According to AIMIM local leaders, general secretary Komorov Sayyd and others tendered their resignation over the party’s LS face.
“City head Faraq Shabdi deliberately decided a candidate that will indirectly benefit the BJP contender. We resigned from our posts to oppose the step,” Sayyd alleged.
Shabdi said, “We have finalised a list of 10 aspirational candidates, including former MLA Ramesh Kadam but could not take a decision. Our senior leaders told us to neither field a candidate nor extend support to anyone.”
In the 2019 general polls, Jaysiddheshwar Shivacharya Mahaswami from BJP won the Solapur election by 158,000 votes against Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde. VBA candidate Prakash Ambekar secured 1.70 lakh votes with support of AIMIM. Hence, this year, the MVA does not want to segregate votes between VBA and AIMIM.
