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Alliance against BJP-Sena in trouble

Senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar's alliance in the state to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena is in trouble. The alliance was created with the purpose of avoiding a division of the votes cast against the BJP-Sena candidates.

Many rebellious members of the Republican Party of India, a constituent of the alliance, are contesting the election alongside the official nominees. To make matters worse, the Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party, both part of the United Front government at the Centre and part of Pawar's alliance, are opposing each other in many constituencies in Maharashtra.

Bombay, with six Lok Sabha seats, is bearing the brunt of the alliance's disunity. In Bombay North-Central, where RPI leader Ramdas Athavale is the official candidate, former Bombay municipal commissioner Janardhan Jadhav, of the RPI, has also filed his nomination.

Another case is in Bombay North-East. Dalit leader Bhai Sangare has thrown his hat into the ring while the alliance has put up Gurudas Kamat of the Congress. The BJP candidate is party general secretary Pramod Mahajan.

Jadhav and Sangare's presence is likely to split the large dalit votes in their respective constituencies.

In Akola, poet Vitthal Wagh has entered the fray against RPI leader Prakash Ambedkar. His presence is also worrying the BJP, which has put up Pandurang Pundkar. However, as all the three candidates are dalits, caste will not be the deciding factor.

In yet another instance of rebellion, RPI leader Yashpal Saravade has filed his nomination from Osmanabad, where the alliance has put up Arvind Kamble of the Congress.

If this was not bad enough, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal have trained their guns on each other with a barrage of verbal attacks. Both sides blame the other for ditching the official United Front candidate.

Janata Dal spokesperson Kapil Patil said the Samajwadi Party has betrayed the United Front it in Maharashtra by entering into an arrangement with the Congress. "The SP, till the end, kept on saying that 'We are a constituent of the UF, we will campaign for UF candidates'," said Patil. He added that the Janata Dal had trusted the Samajwadi Party during the nomination process, only to learn that the latter had joined hands with the Congress.

A zone of contention is Bombay North-West, where the Janata Dal nominated former additional commissioner of police Aftab Ahmed Khan while Tushar Gandhi is the Samajwadi Party candidate and Madhukar Sarpotdar is the Shiv Sena contestant.

Compiled from the Marathi media by Prasanna D Zore

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