Party time for rebels-2

State in a In-fighting state

Apart from Pune, the scene at the state level is also dismal. The biggest news of rivalry this time is that in the Amravati constituency. Sunil Deshmukh, a Congress minister in the state cabinet has accused President Pratibha Patil of misusing her position to get a ticket for her son Raosaheb Shekhawat. The party has denied a ticket to Deshmukh in favour of Shekhawat. Deshmukh has solace in the fact that various non-partisan organisations, including Vanrai have supported him. But he had little option to jump in the fray as a rebel candidate which he did.

In fact, Congress-NCP combine deliberately delayed announcement of candidates' list so as to avoid rebellion. Dilip Sopal, former NCP minister has filed his nomination from Barshi in Solapur distric against the official nominee. Another former NCP minister, Digvijay Khanvilkar is also standing in Kolhapur as an independent candidate. He was defeated in Kolhapur (South) by Satej Patil, then an independent candidate. In a twist of fate, Satej aka Bunty Patil is now official Congress nominee while Khanvilkar is his independent rival.

Most bizarre incident of rebellion occurred in Jamkhed in Ahmednagar district. Sharad Lokhande, sitting MLA from BJP was again given a ticket from the same constituency. But he rejected the ticket and made headed towards Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The two time MLA is a MNS candidate now from Kurla. In a new low of part politics, chief minister Ashok Chavan's cavalcade faced footwear just yesterday. Chavan was at Loha near Nanded to address a rally in support of NCP candidate Shankar Dhongde. It is suspected that supporters of Pratap Patil Chikhlikar, sitting independent MLA from Loha did throw the footwear at CM. Chikhlikar is a supporter of Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister and now union minister of heavy industries. He has supported the Congress-NCP government for last five years but does not have cordial relations with Chavan.

In Shiv Sena, the number of rebel is equally high. Sada Sarvankar, sitting legislator member of party has joined Congress. To top it, he has alleged that Uddhav Thackerey, executive president of Shiv Sena was behind the attack on Manohar Joshi's house which happened last week. That attack itself was indicative how widespread the discontent was in the party. For NCP, Udayanraje Bhosale, the descendant of Chhatrapati SHivaji is busy giving NCP a run for its money. He has already declared that he will field his own candidates in Satara district. The NCP MP from Satara has made enough statements to damage to standing of party in Western Maharashtra.