The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after long and intense contemplation has finally declared mayor Anil Sole as its candidate for the Nagpur graduates constituency seat in the State Legislative Council.
It may be noted here that apart from Sole, former standing committee chairman Sandeep Joshi and Raju Potdar were also being considered for the coveted post.
However, the BJP top brass had been treading cautiously as the seat had been held by Nitin Gadkari and was thus considered as a prized possession.
A committee under Vinod Tawde and Sudhir Mungantiwar had also been constituted to shortlist names of the candidates in the fray. But even this committee failed to arrive at a conclusive decision, after which BJP state president Devendra Fadnavis was vested with the responsibility of selecting the candidate.
Sources informed that MP Nitin Gadkari had already made it clear that it is only a candidate of his choice that would be nominated as the party’s candidate.
Sole’s name had been finalised after a meeting of senior party leaders on Wednesday. But despite this Joshi’s supporters continued to pull strings at national level. Another meeting of national BJP leaders had also been held in Delhi in the presence of Rajnath Singh, Gadkari, Fadnavis and Gopinath Munde. Apparently, Gadkari, who has risen in stature after winning Lok Sabha election with huge margin succeeded in having Sole nominated despite the opposition.
