Published On : Fri, May 10th, 2013
Latest News | By Nagpur Today Nagpur News

Shiv Sena finding itself “Between the devil and the deep sea” over Ramtek LS seat

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Speculations are rife BJP, RPI (Athawale), the alliance partners in State, may claim to fight Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency

Nagpur News: Even though the Lok Sabha elections have not knocked the doors of political parties, the general elections are a year away if held on schedule or any time looking to massive mandate to Congress in Karnataka Assembly, the ever ready political party leaders have pushed the crucial button to activate themselves. Now, reports would start pouring in on the strategies, plans and the alliances of various political parties to emerge victorious and rule Delhi. Don’t forget the popular schemes the parties would float and promise the voters the various freebies like to lure voters to their parties.However, politics is a different ball game and situations turn contradictory with the drop of a hat. The strategies and plans change according to the situations. “Plans go haywire in wars. And the same is true in political battles, too.”

The present situation, as far as Nagpur Lok Sabha Constituency, and the Ramtek Constituency (In Nagpur District), is concerned, the Nagpur seat is in Congress pocket and Ramtek is held by Shiv Sena. However, the “Roaring Tiger,” emblem of Shiv Sena, appears to be in sort of a trouble as the alliance partner of BJP-Shiv Sena combine the Republican Party of India (Athawale) is likely or forcefully demanding the Ramtek seat for its candidate. However, if you call it speculation, is certainly causing unrest among thousands of hard-core Shiv Sainiks. They also see absence of a strong Shiv Sena candidate for contesting the Ramtek seat.

Ramtek constituency has always been in the stronghold of Shiv Sena. Subodh Mohite, who won the polls on Shiv Sena tickets in 1999 and 2004, resigned from Shiv Sena in 2007 and joined Congress as per directives from his “Guru” Narayan Rane. The by-poll for the Ramtek seat was in held in 2007 but this time Mohite had to taste defeat as Prakash Jadhav of Shiv Sena emerged winner from Ramtek.  However, Mukul Wasnik of Congress won the Ramtek seat in 2009 as the constituency was reserved for the Scheduled Caste candidate.

This reservation factor is causing troubles for Shiv Sena as the party of “Marathi Manoos” is finding itself helpless as far as a strong candidate belonging to SC is concerned. The party lacks, or at least it appears, a candidate of high stature belonging to SC category. The candidate with mass appeal could help Shiv Sena win the Ramtek seat again with the help of traditional Shiv Sena voters in as has been witnessed in 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The additional SC votes would help Shiv Sena enormously in winning the seat easily. But the party must found a strong candidate.

The Shiv Sena tried its luck in 2009 Lok Sabha polls by fielding Krupal Tumane against Mukul Wasnik of Congress and almost succeeded in giving a shock as Wasnik won the elections by a thin margin. Mukul Wasnik bagged 3,11,614 votes as against  Krupal Tumane who pocketed 2,94,913 votes thus losing the election by a narrow margin.

Tumane was much ahead of Mukul Wasnik in initial rounds of counting of votes giving Wasnik a tough fight. However, destiny had other thoughts played its vicious role and Wasnik was declared winner after final rounds of counting of votes.

Recently, Raju Parwe, belonging to SC category joined Shiv Sena on insistence of Prakash Jadhav and has intensified the election preparations. Parwe’s efforts could get him the Shiv Sena ticket and could emerge winner from the Ramtek constituency. However, the first and the foremost task before Shiv Sena is to convince RPI (Athawale), its alliance partner, not to claim the Ramtek seat. The chief of RPI Ramdas Athawale is considering to contest the Ramtek seta himself or his party’s candidate though any of the alliance parties has confirmed or denied the fact. It appears to be a “speculation.” The Shiv Sena itself sees the bright chance of winning the Lok Sabha polls if it fields Raju Parwe and would not definitely bow to the demand of Ramdas Athawale.

On the other hand, Shiv Sena might have to “fight” on another front and deal with it by heavy hand. The “fight” is likely with its old and major alliance partner the BJP. The BJP has reportedly claimed that Shiv Sena has no strong candidate to contest the elections. Thus, BJP is, too, pressuring the Shiv Sena to hand over the Ramtek seat to them.  Further, to stress the fact, BJP claimed they have a list of SC candidates including former Mayor Rajesh Tambe who can contest the elections.

It may be recalled the BJP-Shiv Sena Combine was joined by RPI (Athawale) last year or so and contested Mumbai Municiaal Corporation elections together. However, Shiv Sena was benefited mostly and became Ruling Party in BMC.

However, in the fast developing political situations the Shiv Sena anticipating a bigger threat from its allies as far as contesting Ramtek  Lok Sabha is concerned as both BJP and RPI (Athawale) are pricking the party over the seat. The situation for Shiv Sena is well can be described, of course not literally, as follows:

 

Now, the Shiv Sena is “finding itself between the devil and the deep sea.”