Munde, Khadse, Tawde and Bawankule left out of BJP Legislative Council nomination

Sidelining party seniors including former ministers Pankaja Munde, Eknath Khadse, Chandrakant Bawankule and Vinod Tawde, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday

Sidelining party seniors including former ministers Pankaja Munde, Eknath Khadse, Chandrakant Bawankule and Vinod Tawde, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday nominated four candidates to the legislative Council polls to be held on May 21.

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Those who were nominated include `Dhangar’ leader (shepherd community), Gopichand Padalkar; Ranjitsinh Mohite Patil, former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP, who joined the BJP ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Pravin Dakte, Nagpur city chief of the party and Ajit Gopchade, a doctor from Nanded and president of BJP’s state medical cell. A BJP party communication confirmed the development.

While Munde lost the assembly polls, Khadse, Tawde and Bawankule had been dropped by the party leadership from contesting polls. All the four leaders were hoping for rehabilitation and it was widely expected that at least one of them would get accommodated given that the BJP lacks experienced leaders in the Upper House.

The selection of the candidates also indicates that the BJP top brass has endorsed state leadership led by former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

“Fadnavis continues to have a say in the state matters. The nomination of these four candidates points to that. At the same time, this is also a signal from party top brass that it won’t overlook rebellion within the party. While Munde had held a mega rally in Beed, where she criticised the party, Khadse has openly voiced his discontent,” said a senior BJP functionary.

Padalkar joined the BJP at the behest of Fadnavis and contested polls against NCP leader and incumbent Deputy Chief Ajit Pawar from his pocket borough in Baramati. Mohite Patil was promised MLC post last year when he joined BJP with his father, VijaySinh by Fadnavis.

Datke, seen to be close to Union minister Nitin Gadkari as well as Fadnavis, has got an opportunity instead of Bawankule. This is despite feedback that the BJP lost some of the seats in Vidarbha in the state assembly polls as a direct result of dropping Bawankule, a `Teli’ community (one of the OBC castes) leader. Gopchade’s nomination has come as a surprise. He is from Nanded, where the BJP has fielded several leaders to combat Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan.

Khadse post-state assembly polls had alleged that he had lost poll ticket due to Fadnavis and former minister Girish Mahajan.