Sena, BJP battle over Konkan

Is Maharashtra’s opposition leader Ramdas Kadam left without a constituency to contest the assembly elections? The seat sharing talks between two decade-old saffron partners the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janta Party have been stuck over Guhagar Assembly constituency in Konkan, reports Rajendra Aklekar.

Is Maharashtra’s opposition leader Ramdas Kadam left without a constituency to contest the assembly elections?

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The seat sharing talks between two decade-old saffron partners the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janta Party have been stuck over Guhagar Assembly constituency in Konkan.

Kadam, who now represents Khed assembly seat, has to look for a new one as his existing constituency has been merged into Guhagar post-delimitation.

The BJP has strongly indicated that it will not budge from Guhagar that has been traditionally with them while Kadam has been insisting on it.

BJP leader Vinod Tawde told the media BJP would retain the Guhagar seat. Sena sources said the party has now asked Kadam to “go slow” on his demand.

“Kadam seems to be upset. He skipped a party election meeting taken by party executive president Uddhav Thackeray on Friday afternoon,” a party office-bearer said.

Party sources said the Sena does not have an aggressive face in Konkan after Narayan Rane left the party. MLC Parshuram Uparkar, who was publicly pronounced by the Sena to replace Rane, has completely failed to garner support and votes in Konkan. Hence Sena has been keen to send Kadam to the region.

Party leaders said that they were confident of sorting out the issue. “The Sena-BJP alliance has nearly finalised its seat sharing and the parties would contest the same number of seats they did the last time,” a senior party functionary said.