Fadnavis stamps his singular authority on Vidhan Parishad polls

Mumbai: The Bharatiya Janata Party’s choice of its five candidates for the Maharashtra Vidhan Parishad elections scheduled on June 20 is a clear reflection of former CM Devendra Fadnavis’s complete control over the party in the state.

The tenure of Pravin Yashwant Darekar, the BJP leader of opposition in the state legislative council and a close confidant of Fadnavis has been renewed, as expected. Similarly, Shrikant Bharatiya, who was named the party’s organizational secretary after two earlier incumbents exited the post following controversy, has also been given a nomination to the Vidhan Parishad.

“Bharatiya took charge as organizational secretary after two previous incumbents abandoned the post. He was subsequently also made the BJP’s general secretary in Maharashtra. He has obviously been rewarded by Fadnavis for ably handing the Pandharpur by-election, where the BJP was able to wrest the assembly seat from the NCP and increase the BJP tally of MLAs from 105 to 106,”a senior BJP leader told First India.

Similarly, Prasad Minesh Lad--another close associate of Fadanavis--has made the list even as BJP stalwart Pankaja Munde lost out, despite her keenness to be accommodated in the state legislature.

“The BJP may have felt that elevating Pankaja Munde to the legislative council would be akin to handing over the Parli constituency- -from where she lost to her cousin and NCP leader Dhananjay Munde in the 2019 assembly polls--to the NCP. Had she been accommodated in the Vidhan Parishad now, she would have had to resign her membership from the council to relaunch her battle for the Parli seat come next assembly polls,” the BJP leader said.

While Lad and Darekar are from the Konkan region, Fadnavis has also nominated Ram Shinde, former MLA from Ahmednagar (considered difficult political turf for the BJP), and the BJP Mahila Morcha president Uma Girish Khapre, another Fadnavis appointee, to the Vidhan Parishad.

Shinde was elevated to cabinet rank by Fadnavis in 2016 but courted controversy over allegations of corruption subsequently, before losing in the 2019 state assemblies.

However, the BJP may still have a trick up its sleeve on Thursday, the last day for filing nominations to the Vidhan Parishad. “An independent candidate may file his or her nomination with the party’s support if they vote for the BJP’s Rajya Sabha candidates on June 10,” a well-placed source said.