Published On : Sat, Nov 1st, 2014

Sena move to name new city chief gains steam after Assembly poll rout; Kumeria frontrunner

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Nagpur.

The humiliating defeat in all the 12 constituencies of Nagpur District in October 15 Assembly election, despite an impressive victory in Ramtek in Lok Sabha poll a few months back, has rattled Shiv Sena and its President Uddhav Thackeray to the core. Taking the decimation seriously, Uddhav has sought a report from the local units of the party to be discussed in a high-level meeting. Major changes in organizational level are in the offing in the region after the “Chintan-Manthan” (Churning) over the report.

Interestingly, Shiv Sena fared somewhat respectably only in Ramtek and Saoner out of 12 constituencies of Nagpur District. Party’s seating MLA Ashish Jaiswal stood second with 47262 votes in Ramtek while Vinod Jivtode sweated hard and forced his rival run for money by bagging 75421 votes from Saoner seat. But the staggering votes were not enough to make him victorious. In other seats, the show of the party was very disappointing much to the chagrin of Uddhav Thackeray. In other places, former MP Prakash Jadhav could muster abysmal 6997 votes in Hingna constituency, Tapeshwar Vaidya received 12791 votes in Kamptee, Jagannath Abhyankar 7180 votes in Umred, Rajendra Harne 13649 in Katol. In the six seats of Nagpur City, the situation was even more miserable. In South Nagpur, despite a stronghold and campaign blitz, Kiran Pandav could receive only 13863 votes while Satish Harde had to be content with a meager 3281 votes in Central Nagpur. The overenthusiastic Panju Totwani was nowhere in contest with 2767 votes in South West Nagpur constituency. Vikas Ambhore emerged as the worst farer by bagging only 1180 votes. The active property dealer Ajay Dalal could muster 7484 votes in East Nagpur. Ironically, in this Assembly election, Shiv Sena had to suffer brunt of revolt forcing its leadership to take the matter seriously.

Now, Uddhav Thackeray is contemplating hard measures including overhaul of office-bearers aimed at strengthening party base in Vidarbha in general and Nagpur District in particular.

The party is soon going to declare new name for the vacant District President. The name of troubleshooter Kishore Kumeria is in forefront for post of City President of the party.

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